Editor’s note: Amigos805 welcomes local guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.
By David Magallanes • Guest contributor
Last week, the new mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, quickly found himself embroiled in a self-inflicted controversy. At a press conference, he casually referred to cooks, dishwashers, messengers, shoe shiners and fast-food workers as “low-skill workers.” That got the attention of some powerful and influential people.
Liberal U.S. State Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fired back via Twitter. She claimed that calling workers “low-skilled” plays into a “myth perpetuated by wealthy interests to justify inhumane working conditions, little/no healthcare, and low wages.”
But looking past the outcry over the mayor’s remarks, we might want to pause and consider the implications of the issues at hand. The mayor was trying to draw attention to the deleterious effects of the Work From Home (WFH) culture that is evolving. This movement, for all its good intentions and practicality, will devastate businesses that serve office and tech workers who are no longer commuting to work at their offices (which to many sounds so “2019”). In places like Los Angeles and New York City, and in large cities between Seattle and Atlanta, the pandemic has been particularly cruel to low-wage workers. These large metropolitan centers had developed symbiotic ecosystems that sustained the service workers who fueled the work lifestyles of the white collar “elite.” They needed each other for their very survival. But since March 2020, that circle of work life has been broken—perhaps irretrievably.
Office workers, having tasted the freedom, efficiency, and advantages of working from home, will not likely want to rush back to the Monday through Friday, 9-to-5 routine at the physical office. Their bosses may feel that they have no choice but to accommodate—to some level, at least—this new paradigm that was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon office and tech workers. The workers who served those office workers’ needs now find themselves deprived of their livelihoods. Their main source of income has essentially vanished as quickly as the sun extinguishes the stars at dawn.
Many of these lower-income workers will be forced to seek other opportunities. This could be extremely challenging for someone with little or no education past high school, or who may not even have graduated from high school.
There are projects afoot, such as the Harvard Project on Workforce, to help the tsunami of displaced workers who will be forced to make changes. Likewise, some of our community colleges have been focusing on “transfer rates” to four-year colleges and universities. They may want to swerve back to their historical role of offering a vocational career track to those for whom education at the higher strata is not a goal. The two-year colleges can help society by offering courses designed to prepare young people for work that allows them to earn a humane wage—or even a high salary. With decent wages, workers can live in a reasonably dignified manner. Government can help by providing financial aid to students who commit to learning new skills.
We are all facing a new and unpredictable world. It may feel like we are aiming at a target that changes speed and mutates into different forms as we attempt to reckon with this new reality, whatever it becomes.
Eric Adams is right. If we ignore the needs of service and front-line workers, we risk destabilizing our entire economic system.
— Writing services are offered at my website, David Magallanes Writing Services. David Magallanes is a retired college math educator.
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Entrenamiento Para la Fuerza Laboral en un Mundo Pospandemia
Por David Magallanes • Columnista invitado
Todos estamos atravesando este tiempo que permanecerá en nuestra memoria el resto de nuestras vidas. Si tenemos la edad suficiente, no solo nosotros, sino también nuestros hijos y nietos estamos experimentando la desorientación, el estrés y la angustia de la pandemia de COVID-19. Algún día, estos hijos y nietos contarán historias de la Gran Pandemia de 2019-2022 (con suerte no más larga) a sus descendientes, posiblemente incluidos nuestros tataranietos. No podemos empezar a adivinar qué tecnología se utilizará para grabar esas historias para la posteridad. Es posible que algunos de nosotros tengamos fotografías venerables de antepasados ??cercanos que sufrieron y murieron durante La Gripe Española de 1919 – 1920.
Últimamente, a menudo pienso en las pruebas, tribulaciones y traumas de las familias de nuestro país y del mundo que vivieron o murieron durante La Gripe Española de 1918 a 1919. No tenían la ciencia que los hubiera protegido extensamente, como lo hacemos ahora. Es sorprendente que en este momento, cuando tengamos esa protección disponible gratuitamente, millones en todo el mundo descarten militantemente lo que tan fácilmente podría salvar su salud y sus propias vidas. También es sorprendente que estos mismos millones estén dispuestos a arriesgar no solo su propia salud y su vida, sino también la de sus familias, amigos y vecinos. El resto de nosotros aceptaremos la vacuna COVID mientras agradecemos humildemente las décadas de investigación científica moderna que nos trajeron a este momento.
Encontré un compendio de historias de la época de La Gripe Española en un sitio web confiable, uno publicado por nuestro Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, según sus siglas en inglés). Podemos leer estas historias, con toda su intensidad, en el Libro de Cuentos sobre la Influenza Pandémica del CDC. Como explica el sitio, estas historias no son “folclor”, sino más bien los recuerdos personales de los estadounidenses que vivieron durante una pandemia que fue casi tan mortal como nuestra plaga actual.
Aunque oficialmente murieron menos estadounidenses por La Gripe Española que por el COVID, proporcionalmente, la gripe española fue mucho peor (hasta la fecha). Ahora, los hospitales modernos equipados con tecnología milagrosa atienden a las personas que están gravemente enfermas por COVID. Incluso las personas afectadas que están cerca de la muerte tienen la oportunidad de recuperar sus vidas con ventiladores que no estaban disponibles en 1918. En esos días, la gente estaba esparcida en las calles y en sus patios mientras sucumbían al patógeno mortal.
Hagamos un esfuerzo por cuidar de nosotros mismos aprovechando al máximo las vacunas, los refuerzos y, sobre todo, la educación que nos ayuda a tomar decisiones informadas. Ahora es demasiado fácil confiar en la “investigación” pseudocientífica que no es más confiable que un dispensador de jabón en un baño público.
– – Servicios de escritura se ofrecen en mi sitio web, David Magallanes Writing Services. David Magallanes es un profesor de matemáticas jubilado.
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