I want to say something about people who form the base of society. Not the same as the political base to which politicians appeal, I’m thinking of the base upon which the structure of our modern society is built, and, if not maintained in good condition, could be the root cause of collapse. The people who form this base do the work often labelled menial; in jobs that pay the least, provide few benefits, and receive little recognition from the rest of us.
Who is this base?They are people who sweep and clean, wash cars, work the land on factory farms, provide home health care, mow lawns, and generally do the work of what was once relegated to a servant class. There are exceptions but most of the base work is done to just survive rather than to flourish. At the same time, society depends on the base to provide the necessary conditions for others to do more difficult, challenging and rewarding work. It’s nothing new. It’s always been and is the base of the foundation on which modern societies are built.
The foundation itself is what we have ungenerously called the working class into which we’ve lumped those who work with their hands in places that are not offices, schools or hospitals. I’ve never understood why popular mythology holds them in less esteem than those we label as professional or executive, but it does and always has. It’s not just an American trait so you can lay off the self abuse. It’s common among every complex society on earth. But the base of which I write keeps our whole blasted society running. With their un-acknowledged levels of expertise, they know how to do their jobs better and more efficiently than anyone, especially the “higher ups.”
The metaphor of base and foundation can capture only a sense of a far more complicated reality. Another way of putting it is that these workers make up the infrastructure of society. We know what happens when infrastructure is not maintained, rebuilt when needed to use new technologies meeting new demands. Everything else becomes more difficult, more costly, and less efficient. The problem is that it is too easy to take infrastructure for granted, to see keeping it up to date as a cost, not an investment, and to defer work on it as long as possible. I fear we treat the workers who are the base, foundation, and infrastructure of society the same way. A predictable result is the sort of destructive populism fomented by Trump that has upended American political discourse.
I have no doubt that base and foundation workers take pride in their work and know its value to society. Studies suggest that they collectively believe society as whole, especially those in positions of power, look down on them as disposable cogs in a machine that can’t run without them but places little value on the dignity of their work or the value on any one worker.
My own experience is anecdotal but possibly not unlike yours. We have warm, friendly relationships with the people who clean our house, we exchange greetings with the UPS driver and say hello to the landscapers. We recognize the dignity of their work and its importance to our well being. Yet we know little of their personal lives and struggles or whether they’re living from hand to mouth, unable to save or rely on the benefits my wife and I have had from our professional lives. Everything is transient. If one person goes, another takes his/her place as if nothing happened. It’s what’s led to the popular idea of people who are forgotten, invisible and left behind.
I believe all of this explains much of the social and political divisiveness experienced in recent years. The solution is both structural and emotional. Structural problems have been created by tax and labor laws that prioritize profit over social justice and privilege the wealthiest of investors. The problems could be addressed through modest changes in tax and labor laws. The chance of that happening is not great considering the bitter opposition changes would face, but I believe progress is possible. An important subset I have championed before is the need to reform state and federal bureaucracies to make regulations easier to understand and follow, and to transform bureaucrats into customer service agencies.
Emotional problems will be more difficult to solve. The American public has been hammered during the MAGA era with propaganda that many workers who form the base and foundation are oppressed, demeaned, ignored, forgotten, and left behind. They have been told the people and policies most likely to make life better are their enemies, and the people and policies that would most take advantage of them are their friends. It has worked well. Divisiveness has been exaggerated by condescending supercilious voices giving credence to the myth of a patronizing liberal elite. I do not know how, but social and news media voices extolling the virtues of 21st century liberal democracy must learn how to stop talking to just each other and begin talking with a broader audience that has not heard them before.