One thing has become disturbingly clear during the country’s anemic economic recovery. Middle-income jobs are disappearing, and they’re not coming back.
The corresponding decline of America’s middle class is something that should concern the entire nation, but as a military veteran, this development directly impinges on essential American freedoms, freedoms that I helped to safeguard during my eight years with the U.S. Marine Corps, 2nd Battalion.
Most of the growth in the recent economic recovery has been due to the growth in low-wage jobs.
But how free are you when you’re paid poverty wages? Not very free at all.
Examining Veterans In The U.S. Economy
That’s what a new report examining the condition of veterans in the U.S. economy, specifically the low-wage security industry, recently found.
The report, called “Underpaid Heroes” found that working conditions for veterans within the industry are poor. The median wage for most security workers is less than $11 an hour, and many security officers are forced to rely on public assistance to make ends meet.
My time in the service taught me a lot about the importance of service, self-sacrifice, and how communities need safety and security in order to prosper.
With one out of five security officers in the U.S. being veterans, we have a responsibility to do right by the men and women that America has asked so much of.
That’s why veterans like me are working with other security officers to push for better wages and working conditions for officers throughout the security industry.
I believe that by improving conditions for security officers, we can continue to serve our communities by having jobs that allow us to work with dignity and provide for our families.
This can also help us to preserve and protect Americans’ freedom from economic insecurity.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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