Someone Call Mary Landrieu; Obamacare Really Can Disrupt Lives!

The Baseline:

One of my favorite young friends is confronted with a life changing dilemma occasioned by Obamacare.  This young man is very fit, outgoing, pleasant, hard-working and ostensibly as healthy as an organic all-veggie salad without dressing.

He's my "go to" guy at work: dependable, willing, and good.  He lives in a sweet little efficiency apartment right off Napoleon, which he rents for a relative pittance because the landlady who owns the "Big House" likes him a lot.  And, ahem, I'll just bet she does. 

Several times a week he works out at a  "Cross-Fit" business on Tchoupitoulas Street, not far from my house.  Often enough, he'll fly by on his bicycle when I'm outside tending to the yard, yell out a greeting and wave.  Sometimes, when he's returning from a hard go at it, he'll stop to chat, shirtless, sweaty, and sated physically in the way only work, exercise, or sex can deliver.  Other times we'll cross paths on Magazine Street on our bikes as I'm headed to or from Breaux Mart and he's headed to or from home.  Yes, we both bike in defiance of irrational drivers on Magazine because we have that right; and, contrary to finger-waving scolds, the bordering, narrow, two-sided solidly parked  streets are just as dangerous.  Also, I'm old and careful; he is young and "bullet-proof."

Several weeks ago, my young friend met a girl at the "Cross-Fit" facility.  She is a former U.S. Olympic Team gymnast who has come back from significant career ending sports injuries, and continues to work out regularly. Oh, and yes, she is a knock out. And, of course, they've hit it off.

But the last time he saw her was the Monday after Jazz Fest. They did all day at Jazz Fest on the closing Sunday, then next morning coffee and beignets in the French Quarter, and said goodbye as she left on the drive to Atlanta in her already packed car.

Who Would've Thought It?

As it happens, the young lady works in marketing for a large pharmaceutical company. Because of the anticipated surge in drug sales resulting from the expanded insurance coverage engendered by Obamacare, she was offered a new position which pays lots more money.  But she now will have to live in Atlanta. 

So, there she goes.  In this terrible economy, who could  blame her? 

Maybe you saw this coming.  She wants my young friend and associate to relocate with her. He has asked me what I think.  Heaven only knows why.

Me And My Badass Advice:

I have turned-down an offer to relocate from New Orleans for a better job.  But I was older than my friend and well settled, married and with a family.

Except that he loves New Orleans like I do, along with the caveat that he originally hails from Wisconsin, he could be happy and easily make it anywhere.  So, what should I say? 

Not being very smart or particularly original, I resorted to referencing a fairly icky line from an equally icky song.  The only reason I'm conversant with the lyric at all is because I often listen to the Jimmy Buffet Pandora stream through my Bluetooth device at work. In that mix is included some pseudo-country sounding artists I can't even identify for this writing, and think not important enough to research. Anyway, here, more or less, is the line: "Don't be falling in love as she's walking away."

Obamacare Might Bank Shot Disrupt My Life.

The jury is still out.  But if I had to guess, the long distance relationship is going to be between me and my young friend, not him and his girl.  Probably it should be.

See, I told you Obamacare can disrupt lives.  Get Mary on the phone. Unlike the other tales, it's true. And she may actually want to hear about this one.

The More This Guy Talks, The More Labor Suffers

Catchy Tag Line

"Skilled labor isn't cheap; and cheap labor just isn't all that skilled."  That sounds right.  Or at least it sounds like it should be right.  But it's wrong on both counts.  That's why Business Manager Chet Held of New Orleans IBEW Local 130 is blowing his members' hard earned dues money when he buys time to say it on TV; and, even worse, actually doing great damage to their cause in the process.

Here's Why

All labor - even skilled labor - is too damn cheap; and some that's cheaper than union labor is pretty damned skilled. Those are just facts.  That's why Held's slick sounding pitch is so damned foul.

The Implicit Wrongheaded Strategy

Evidently some clueless but high dollar ad agency put precisely the wrong message in Held's mouth, which he is likewise too clueless to recognize.  But what he lacks in perspicacity and talent, he makes up for in ego.  He puts himself in these misguided ads, foolishly staring up at what can only be a teleprompter or read-out board of some kind because he apparently can't get his mind around even a stupid and shallow message without technical assistance.  It is a thinly disguised pitch to the world - especially prospective customers - to hire union electricians even though we are not cheap, we cost a good deal more than the other guys; but, hey, we're worth it. And basically the other guys suck. That is a rather tawdry and cheap argument that few if any potential customers will buy.  Worse, it dirties us by actually pitting worker against worker.  By definition, that is the opposite of what the union position should be.

The Actual Message We Should Be Advertising

We should be making the case that all labor, skilled and unskilled is underpaid.  Don't take my word for it.  This is daily corroborated by every serious analysis of the modern economy.  The most surprising recent work on best seller lists is a densely researched tome by French economist, Thomas Piketty, which argues that the developed world's capitalist societies are rapidly evolving into non-democratic Oligarchies.  The middle-class has already eroded more mortally than the Louisiana coastline, and we're living in an environment of perpetual economic and political hurricanes.  There is much for us as union members to do, but spending members' dues money on slick TV ads that wrongly argue our labor is not cheap, and that cheaper labor doesn't deserve better compensation, is a shameful disregard of our true practical and moral mission to improve the dignity and social standing of all working people.