Hate, American Style

One of the most interesting results of market volatility on economies is the security/insecurity that workers feel about their jobs. While professional traders – generically referred to in the United States as “Wall Street” – prefer economic ups and downs (they make money on market movement these days, not long-term growth), such extremes aren’t so great if you have a job that doesn’t require such market movement.

When workplaces are downsized after a merger or the economy contracts, the ability to change jobs to avoid a bad boss, a stagnant job without advancement opportunities, boring repetition or low pay simply becomes that much more difficult. Looking at those drifting in a sea of unemployment or under-employment, or sitting in new jobs without job-protecting seniority, thinking you should go out looking to “do better” just comes off the list of options.

Canada is one of those few developed nations that never bowed to “free marketers’” demands – and when you think of special U.S. laws and tax rates favoring those who trade for a living, inside information, flash trading with those big financial computers with uber-sophisticated trading programs, do you real think there is a free market here? The great northland seems to have happier workers, who seem to miss that fear that keeps to many Americans in jobs they hate. Canadians have always regulated their financial institutions and transactions to foster stability over volatility. So let’s look at the numbers.

“Monster.com and market research company GfK conducted [a job satisfaction study of 8,000 workers across the United States, Canada, India, and Europe], which revealed that only 53% of Americans actively enjoy their jobs, and 15% actively dislike them. Canadians, meanwhile, took top prize for having the cheeriest workforce: 64% of Canadians like their jobs, while only 7% hate what they do.” FastCompany.com, November 18^th. Canada is the only economy in that survey mix that has not had major recessions or depressions in its nation’s history. Not the last mega-recession or even The Great Depression. And as our educational standards plummet, the kinds of jobs Americans are getting these days are falling in quality (Canada isn’t cutting their educational budgets either, by the way).

Canada has far and away the happiest workers, the United States was in the middle (although it had the greatest number of people who hate their jobs – 15%), but the United Kingdom, France and Germany had the smallest number of people who really enjoyed their work, with Germany falling at the bottom with a mere 34% very positive about what they do. Most of them just like it… enough.

But it is that hate number that should have Americans concerned. We’re number one, we’re number one! With double the hatred factor of Canada and even triple that number in impoverished India, Houston, we have a problem. Why? Some speculate that it is just because we work so hard, have less time off, and define ourselves too much by the work we do.

“‘There’s been lots of studies done about how Europeans have more vacation days, or have better work-life balance. The other side of it is that there’s a lot of information about Americans working too many hours,’ Joanie Ruge, senior vice president at the job search site Monster Worldwide, Inc. said. ‘More companies are trying to get more work done with less people.’… This doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, given that the United States has some of the most backward labor practices in the world. It’s one of the few countries that doesn’t require paid annual leave or paid maternity leave by law. The highest earners in the U.S., and overall, the U.S. has some of the longest working hours among developed nations.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re more productive, however. Germany, for example, averages a 35-hour work week but also maintains the fourth largest economy in the world.” FastCompany. But with only 34% of Germans really liking what they do (54% say it’s good enough, as compared to 31% of Americans in the same category), the notion of volatility and the concomitant lack of alternative job choice really need closer examination.

This is the side of American financial regulation – which is a whole lot less than what Canadians have done and what Europeans are now doing – that just isn’t discussed among our legislators and regulators. For reasons based more on tradition than common sense, Cowboy trading appears to be a sacred right to too many Americans who have been slammed by the relative lack of financial regulation and the resulting volatility. Even when statutes are passed – like the watered down Dodd-Frank bill – conservative Cowboys simply have refused to fund the implementation of that statute as the bill required. Isn’t it time to put these rather obvious negatives on the table as regulators and legislators consider how to benefit most Americans? Oh, I forgot, the folks with the money who determine what law get passed won’t let them.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I guess when Americans simply let a plutocracy replace democracy, you get what they let someone pay for.