Economy in Crisis - Wealth is Work

There were so many amazing points raised in the Jon Stewart interview with Jim Cramer, but I thought the most profound was Jon Stewart’s quote, “When are Americans going to realize wealth is work?” This was stated in contrast to the short market trading of stocks to make fast money at the expense of hard working American’s 401k. I am so incredibly grateful Stewart bought up this point and I can imagine Jon Stewart would be thankful I was watching on television because I would have jumped into his lap and given him a wet, slobbery kiss.

I believe that not only it has become an American dream to acquire fast money, but more so an American crisis. The desire to make a lot of money without working for it is an American crisis. I made mention in a previous blog that the German people have a 33 billion dollar surplus of exports with a smaller population in comparison to the United States. What can one deduct from that statistic? Well perhaps for one-work ethic .

Now the last thing I want to do is criticize the American labor force, because there are many very hard working men and women who deserve our gratitude, but the problem is as a nation we have come to honor, admire and glamorize those who have made a lot of money quickly. Our labor force is struggling financially, having a hard time paying their debts, yet these are the people who are keeping the wheels of this nation turning, while others are encouraged to make fast money at the expense of other’s pensions.

Yesterday, I sent a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe in response to an article about struggling with credit corporations and credit scores. The example they chose to use, was showing the loan hardship of a person with a score of 706. That is a fairly good score, why is that news? Why is the news today reporting struggles of people with good jobs and good credit scores? What about our American labor force; teachers, nurses, manufacturers and those of the blue collar work force? These people do not earn a big salary. Let me put this into perspective. The average salary of a high school teacher is around $45,000 a year. Personally, as a fashion designer I was making $80,000 a year and that is the low end of the scale. Even though I spent twenty years in the fashion industry, I will be the first to admit that job is much less important than teaching our nation’s children and look at the salary discrepancy. Now imagine being a teacher making $45,000 a year and supporting a family, two children and a spouse in today’s economy. Unless you are a frugal money mastermind it is hard not to go into debt.

This takes me back to Jon Stewart’s point of wealth is work? How far have we strayed from the good old fashion American work ethic to earning a fast buck with nothing to show for it? And to realize that foreigners are doing most of our American labor, while we enjoy spinning the stock market and making money off quick and easy scams and then we have the audacity to sit back and scratch our head and wonder what happened to our economy, or to blame those who are making $45,000 a year and struggling to feed their families. This I say is the American crisis, more so then the financial market crisis. Personally, I think what is best for our nation’s economy is for Americans to roll up our sleeves and get a little dirty.