Here is an idea I have been developing the last few days.
Why doesn't the U.S. honor the people who fell in the Great Emptying Out of 2008?
In the space of a single year 12 million people lost their jobs.
From all reports, they will never work again, certainly not for benefits.
And yet, the U.S. has done little to thank this enormous group for their gift to the country.
What was their gift? They were scapegoats, sent out to die in order to save others.
Every person who lost his or her job prevented another person from losing his or her job.
And yet ... I have not detected a scintilla of gratitude among the working people of the U.S. who were spared because of the termination of these 12 million.
It is a comparable sacrifice made by our fighting men in World War II. Over 400,000 people gave their lives in WWII, and the losses rolled through every family and every community.
But this was 12 million people ... more than 25 times the number of WWII deaths.
As with the war, these people were drafted against their will.
The economic costs to their families dwarfs the losses of WWII. Families will draw down their savings. Many have already lost their homes.
The individuals in question will likely never work again, according to economists like Robert Reich.
Without health insurance, premature death will be the lot of most of the 12 million.
Mental health has plummeted. Suicide has surged. Divorce rates are way, way up.
These are the everyday sacrifices made by the 12 million that directly benefit employees who were not laid off.
Congress is uninterested in reaching out a hand to create jobs or provide assistance to the doomed 12 million. Indeed, many are laying the blame for our nation's budgetary problems at the feet of these laid-off workers.
Therefore, I'm thinking, something relatively cheap but highly visible is in order.
I propose a six-story monument to be built in front of the Capitol Rotunda, thanking the 12 million for being laid off.
I am thinking, in addition, a national holiday, perhaps the day after Labor Day, honoring the 12 million.
I urge you to take a moment and write your representatives and senators, urging them to build the Layoff Memorial at the earliest opportunity, before the last of the 12 million draws his or her final breath.
Thank you.