In my day to day with the real America I have come to some conclusions that are both terrifying and inspiring. It is not secret that I spend most of my time dealing with people who are blue collar, hard working, dirt in the nails type of workers. They enlist in jobs that most mid to upper class people think to be embarrassing or even laughable. These are the people who take the minimum wage jobs at Wal-Mart and other high power establishments. However, these people are more necessary than the six figure Fortune 500 CEO. It is
they who keep America running. We afford our way of life, the way of freedom from those who do the jobs that garner little respect and even less security.
Sometime along the way in my real life education, I have come to this realization: The education of the people who keep our establishment functioning are not much more educated than a middle school student. While this may seem alarming, simple reading and writing flaws are rampant if not epidemic. I never thought I would see people 25 years my senior not being able to read and misspelling the most juvenile of words. We spend millions on space exploration which 99% of people have no association with while our education systems fail and go broke. We are supposed to be the greatest nation in the world yet we do not promote the fundamentals that make that title sustainable. The severe degradation of our schooling and educational system has directly impacted and impaired an entire class of people. I am not saying that every person is cut out for college nor should everyone be expected to attend. But college has become a privilege for those who are able to afford it. However, being able to afford and effectively promote high school level education will improve our country from the bottom up.
The discrepancy between a person with a masters going for a PHD and a person who never graduated from high school and obtaining a GED is monumental. Having a simple GED improves not only the mentality and accomplishment of someone who will never get that PHD, but it will also provide an educational environment that can be built upon by the next generation of a family. Children need to be taught by their parents as much if not more than what they are taught in school. If kids are surpassing their parents' educational capabilities at 14 then it leaves much to be desired for a solid foundation and motivation to push the limits. But when you have 50 year old people spelling "rinse" with "rinch", there is a fundamental problem with society and leads to a degradation of classes.
Most of these people who make up the foundation of the world we know do not find themselves in large metropolises. No, the find themselves in the backyard one-stop light towns. They are the country folk who live much simpler existences than those of the bustling concrete jungles. However, I think we have entered into a phase much like the industrial revolution at the turn of the century. Many people are leaving their home towns and heading toward the city life to find work. The small mom and pop stores can not keep pace with the super giant multinational corporations. It is rare to see Brown's Insurance or Johnson Hardware. Family owned businesses are a dieing breed. That is not to say that entrepreneurs are not out there. In fact there are many out there, but those with successful ideas quickly sell out their service for the Starbucks-esk franchising niche. Those that fail fade into obscurity . There is no bail out, no congressional meetings for these people. There is only bankruptcy and scrapping by to survive.
However, some of these old style towns still exist and function as they did during the depression. With each person relying on the patronage of their family, friends and neighbors to survive from paycheck to paycheck. They have not lost sight of the personal aspect of life. The intangibles, the person behind the counter, or the craftsman to do homework, or the mail person actually knowing the inhabitants of the house. In the world of instant messaging, email, and tele-conferences, people have lost sight of the personal side of conducting business. Business is not just about money (or it shouldn't be), it is also about the people and providing a service that people are actually truely thankful for.