Get A Job As An Essential Worker!
I haven’t watched any of Cuomo’s press conferences. I’m glad I didn’t back then. I saw this clip back in April.
After seeing it, I feel I made the right decision by staying away. I’m sure I would have been disgusted by his statements a long time ago. Why do I feel this way? Let me explain.
A reporter asked Governor Cuomo what he would say to New Yorkers who want to go back to work because they are running out of money. He replied, “economic hardship doesn’t equal death.” He also added, “You want to go to work? Go take a job as an essential worker.”
That makes no sense. If that’s the case, why on earth are there 26 million people unemployed today? If things were that easy, no one would apply for unemployment.
Cuomo is incredibly dismissive. The only people I’ve found who are content to “stay at home” for the foreseeable future are those that have W2 jobs where they can comfortably work from their couch and most likely have a lot of cash in the bank. It’s easy to pontificate while you’re still generating income in one way or another and not begging for unemployment. People who can post how going back to work too soon (whatever that means) aren’t generally concerned about how they’ll eat next month or pay rent. Those are concerns of other people. The cries of safety by staying home come at the economic and life security expense of those who aren’t fortunate to be able to work from home and binge Netflix.
When large numbers of people can’t support themselves or can’t provide for their family’s basic needs, the time will come when desperation enters the picture. Sooner, rather than later, people will start doing things like taking to the streets, looting, and possibly resorting to criminal activity to attempt to get what they need when the money runs out — and it just might happen.
For those who don’t think that’s the case, why did New York State use up about half the money in its unemployment insurance trust fund from March to mid-April if everyone could pivot and immediately get a job the next day? According to the Wall Street Journal, New York’s Labor Department had paid $2.2 billion in unemployment benefits to 1.1 million people since the start of the crisis in March. New York has applied for a $4 billion federal loan to help cover the ballooning costs. As of right now, the federal government isn’t looking to bail out the states. With fewer tax receipts coming into the state coffers, what does Cuomo think will happen to this unemployment trust fund?
I am astonished by how few people seem to consider these things. Has anyone in Cuomo’s office thought about the state eventually running out of money as even a possibility, or even a likely outcome if people aren’t allowed to generate their income?
In his statement to the reporter in the clip at the top of this newsletter, Cuomo thinks that people should get a job if unemployment isn’t enough. Does he want people to stay at home and “flatten the curve,” or should hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers go outside and get essential jobs?
Have you thought about what an essential job is? Here are a few of them:
* Personnel working for companies, and their subcontractors, who perform under contract to the Department of Defense providing materials and services to the Department of Defense, and government-owned/contractor-operated and government-owned/government-operated facilities.
* Workers who support the production and transportation of chlorine and alkali manufacturing, single-use plastics, and packaging that prevents the contamination or supports the continued manufacture of food, water, medicine, and other essential products, including glass container manufacturing.
* Workers who are needed to process and maintain systems for processing financial transactions and services (e.g., payment, clearing, settlement; wholesale funding; insurance services; and capital markets activities).
* Workers necessary for the manufacturing of materials and products needed for medical supply chains, transportation, energy, communications, food and agriculture, chemical manufacturing, nuclear facilities, dams, water and wastewater treatment, emergency services, and the defense industrial base.
* Workers such as plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation, construction material sources, and essential operation of construction sites and construction projects (including those that support such projects to ensure the availability of needed facilities, transportation, energy and communications; and support to ensure the effective removal, storage, and disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste).
* Maintenance of communications infrastructure- including privately owned and maintained communication systems- supported by technicians, operators, call-centers, wireline and wireless providers, cable service providers, satellite operations, undersea cable landing stations, Internet Exchange Points, and manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment.
That’s just six of the dozens of jobs that are deemed essential. Have you actually tried to find a job in any of these businesses? I looked up a few jobs to see if I could apply for any of them and get an appointment next week. I wasn’t surprised to discover I would need many years of training and experience to qualify for a career in most of these fields.
What if someone spent the past 25 years working in their chosen field, clawing their way up in a specialized industry and eventually advancing to the top. Then, suddenly, a state government says they can’t work in that industry any longer. Do these leaders expect people to suddenly apply online to become a firefighter at age 60?
Has this governor forgotten that people who are out of work aren’t always employees? In many cases, they’re owners of small businesses. What happens to the types of people who have seen their lifelong dream of running a bakery, barbershop, laundry service, print business, gym, nightclub, or restaurant, which might have taken decades of blood, sweat, and tears to build and become successful, taken out from under them in mere weeks? Unemployment compensation means nothing to these types of essential people. Does Cuomo feel business owners should go out and get a job too?
It seems as if the whole process is subject to the whims and political philosophy of this governor.
We can have endless debates over what matters at this time. In many states, essential workers include people who worked as landscapers. Businesses in other states deemed necessary include home improvement stores, liquor stores, gun shops, sex stores, gyms, and office-supply shops. Every business is essential to somebody in the end, especially to those who are working there.
I could go on and on dissecting the other things he mentioned in the clip above. I’ll save that for the next newsletter.
I’m beyond disgusted with every level of government at this point. We need government, but there are limits. I feel they’ve reached their limit in my book.
Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University’s School of Business and is a 25 year veteran of the fast-paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in several hit broadway and off-broadway musicals, including “Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musicaland Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill. In addition, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q. You can also follow Clayton on Instagram and Twitter www.claytoncraddock.com
Originally published at https://claytoncraddock.substack.com.
