Letter to the Editor: Jobs

An interesting article appeared in the opinion pages of the Des Moines Register on Sunday, April 7, and something one might ought to pay attention to (if one were ever to read a newspaper which doesn’t often appear to be the case). After all, newspapers still attempt, and I say ‘attempt’ guardedly, to give us some notion of what is happening, not only in our immediate surroundings, but planetarily.

The comment was made that for every 100 positions available for employment here in Iowa, only 67 people are available to fill those 100 positions. Now this brings me to several issues. First, for the working people of Iowa, this is good news — the fewer people available to work, the better the pay should be. Secondly, this by itself lends support to Governor Reynolds decision to send troops and officers to the border to keep all those people who are looking for jobs from coming to Iowa.

You would never have thought, would you, that our governor would actually want to help the working person of Iowa. As they say Who Knew? As long as we have more jobs than people, our McDonald’s and Walmart employees might actually have some confidence that a person who will work for even less will not take their low-income, no-benefit jobs. The article was also discussing the problem with people finding employment while on probation for some criminal infraction.

Apparently, the Iowa House has passed a bill allowing a person to reduce his or her time on probation if employed. Having long understood the purpose of probation: first, ensuring that the probationer will do what he or she is told for an extended period of time and second, to become a “productive member of society” — the encouragement of employment by probationers seems to be contradictory in its effects. Sending troops to the border decreases the labor supply while granting early release from probation for working non-sustaining, low-paying jobs increases the labor supply.

Seems to me we are a little confused here. We either want fewer employees or we don’t. Which is it? Confusion seems to be the order of the day. Maybe if we would read a newspaper once in a while (which started this conversation), we might be able to give some intelligent thought to these issues which apparently are causing a great deal of angst amongst the general population.

Since I am not referencing the particular reader of this article, who obviously reads a newspaper occasionally, I am not insulting anyone unnecessarily.

Richard E. H. Phelps II

Mingo