Sunday, December 12, 2004
The Travelling Bra Salesman
(Via Cogwheels) Every year, Shell and The Economist conduct a writing contest and this year's topic was 'Import workers or export jobs?' This year, the prize was won by Claudia O'Keefe from Frankford, West Virginia for her first-person essay titled 'The Travelling Bra Salesman.' Here is the synopsis of her essay which can be read in full here.
When a former middle-class professional is stranded and falls into poverty in job poor West Virginia, she finds parallels between her depressed local economy and the debates on outsourcing and immigration raging throughout her country and the world. She remembers an important lesson taught to her by her stepfather decades ago, a traveling salesman who cruised Route 66 with a trunk full of bras, selling to variety stores and making a good living for his family until his way of life was threatened. Know when to let go of the past and reach for the future.
The question we face is not whether it is good or bad to import workers or export jobs. The problem is that society has hit an emotional road block, with pro-worker and pro-business factions stubbornly pitted against each other, completely inhibiting progress. Many jobless are angry at the withering of something considered a natural right, The American Dream. Nothing can be solved until we acknowledge that one dream is ending and another waiting for us to recognize it. Only then will we open ourselves to solutions we haven’t yet considered or invented, to a more inclusive and thrilling successor to outmoded 20th century ideals of employment and immigration. It is not The American Dream we should seek, but The Global Dream.
When a former middle-class professional is stranded and falls into poverty in job poor West Virginia, she finds parallels between her depressed local economy and the debates on outsourcing and immigration raging throughout her country and the world. She remembers an important lesson taught to her by her stepfather decades ago, a traveling salesman who cruised Route 66 with a trunk full of bras, selling to variety stores and making a good living for his family until his way of life was threatened. Know when to let go of the past and reach for the future.
The question we face is not whether it is good or bad to import workers or export jobs. The problem is that society has hit an emotional road block, with pro-worker and pro-business factions stubbornly pitted against each other, completely inhibiting progress. Many jobless are angry at the withering of something considered a natural right, The American Dream. Nothing can be solved until we acknowledge that one dream is ending and another waiting for us to recognize it. Only then will we open ourselves to solutions we haven’t yet considered or invented, to a more inclusive and thrilling successor to outmoded 20th century ideals of employment and immigration. It is not The American Dream we should seek, but The Global Dream.
