The New Economy After The Elections

[edsiejka]

They travel
Distances
To work at the new factory
At the mall
To sell
To persuade
To show
To ring up sales
To stock shelves
And keep merchandise neat and attractive.

Customers
Look
Touch
Examine
Feel and perhaps
Buy.

Standing on their feet
Workers wonder
How does an
An $8.00 an hour job
Minus benefits
Zero coverage
Negative career
Compute
In their lives?

Their parents had jobs
Some for thirty years
In a real workplace
Free from outsourcing
Goods made in China
High unemployment
And foreclosures.

The store mannequin tells workers to break it up
Back to their counters
To do what they’re being paid for
But there is much more beneath the surface of his words
A threat
Real or imagined
The workers listen
Because there is nowhere to go
Nothing else to do.
In the new economy.

The young have energy
To organize
To demonstrate
To petition
For real change
Time is on their side
For a better tomorrow.

[saw]

a timely piece given the rebellion in Egypt, where unemployment and a stifling future for so many resulted in millions taking to the streets...i found it interesting that half of the population is under thirty and the uprising was organized on facebook.......a sign of the times ?.......the scene you describe is a common one worldwide.... dead-end jobs that kill the spirit, suck the creative juices down the drain.........thanx for posting this