I want Freedom from Want

At the risk of sounding like a Grinch, Christmas seems to be the perfect time to mouth off to the man. That’s right, Corporate America.

Survey the year’s current events and I think one thing comes to the surface: Corporate America’s fallibility. Since we were little kids, we’ve been sold a line, “This may not be a perfect system, but it is the best system in the world.” And I totally agree with the sentiments of my second grade teacher, scared out of her southwestern socks about communism.

However…

Do you see the irony that we realize “the system” isn’t perfect (in other words “has problems”) but we don’t think anything needs to be done about it? This statement is itself an appeal to complainers to shut up.

But this year, multinational capitalism led by Corporate America really showed her stuff. Look what the big green Santa brought us this year:

American families can’t stay in their homes
Hardworking Americans are losing their jobs
Our country’s most legendary companies (GM, Ford, etc…) are out of cash
Your stock is worthless
America’s economic problems are putting people in other countries out of work, too

Now who’s the Grinch? It’s Corporate America folks!

Here’s what I think we need to realize during this holiday season: “Free-market capitalism” is a really deceptive term. We think we’re free because we, in America, can say whatever we want to on our blogs. But we’re afraid to quite our jobs because we need that health insurance for “Tiny Tim’s” surgery (”The Christmas Story”…it’s a joke). We’re afraid to start a business because we would’t have healthcare. We’re afraid to take too much vacation because if we get fired, we can’t pay back the college loan… or the car, or the house.

As long as things are more colorful that North Korea, we think we’re free. But we need to ask ourselves this year, what does freedom really look like? During the Great Depression, President Roosevelt came up with something called the Four Freedoms:
Freedom of speech and expression
Freedom of religion
Freedom from want
Freedom from fear

Pay attention to those last two: freedom from want and freedom from fear. Did you know there was a time in America when a man could work eight hours a day and earn enough to support his wife and children? I’m all for women going to work–that’s not what this is about. This is about the fact that today, no matter whether it’s the wife who’s working or the husband who’s working, one wage won’t support a family.

What I wish for this Christmas is for a “system” where the people who spend their day between the welfare office and the corner office can earn a decent wage. By decent, I mean that “normal” people should be able to send their kids to the doctor and to college. And we should have vacation. When I was in America, I was told I was blessed to have six days a year as an entry-level worker. Now I have 18 days a year, and this is a communist country!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying America should adopt Chinese Special Socialism. I’m saying that we need to stop settling for “the land of the free and the home of the broke” (I made that up, like it?). We have an awesome political system that our founding fathers established, with transparent government, democratic elections, term limits, etc. It’s the best Christmas gift any country could hope for. But as long as we let Corporate America keep it under wraps… they tell you it’s a big red shiny Christmas bow but it’s all red tape.

This Christmas, I hope Santa will bring America “Freedom from Want” (and for Corporate America, coal and switches).

Here are four Normal Rockwell paintings that illustrate the Four Freedoms.