My brother in law was laid off / fired from his job this past
week. He is an engineer at a medium size company that develops
electronic testing equipment. I don’t know exactly why he was
let go, something about corporate restructuring. He is in his
mid 50’s and is about as conservative as a man can be.
This is a person who was forever spouting off about how
glorious the free market is and painstakingly explained that
all the jobs being outsourced to India and other countries are
just the results of the global economy adjusting to the
realities of a changing labor force.
When a friend of mine was laid off from her IT job in 2003, my
BIL said it was her own fault for not keeping herself
“marketable” by continuing education and retraining. And I can
remember distinctly when he proclaimed there should be no
worker protections against abuse by employers, that there
should be no legislated minimum wage and all unions should be
abolished. Over the years I have argued with him about these
and other issues. My favorite argument was when he insisted
that Bush was a successful businessman and knows what it’s
like to have to meet a payroll and worry about getting health
insurance for his employees. That Bush had to make his own
way, earn his own fortune and that Mommy and Poppy Bush didn’t
hand him anything on a silver platter!
Now, I feel sorry for my BIL and his family, I know how hard
it is going to be for a man his age to find a job. Contrary to
what he was saying a couple weeks ago, the economy is not
looking so good for folks in his situation. So, as I say, I
can't help but feel for the guy.
But I am just writhing with the urge to blurt out something
like: “Aren’t you just amazingly gratified at how wonderfully
the free market works?” or maybe “Isn’t it marvelous that the
economy is adjusting so well to the realities of the changing
labor force?”
I can’t do that, of course. Not because I am so
self-disciplined that I can refrain from being such a
smart-ass. Or because I am such a good person that I would
never be so cruel. But because my husband did a “preemptive”
intervention and has made me promise I won’t do it. Ohh, but I
want to sooo much! It is agony, I tell you! It is almost more
than I can bear.