The headline of a prominent news story in a hegemonic media outlet reads, "Why getting fired may be the best thing that ever happened to you?" The idea is that, according to race coach Marlo Lyons, being fired is the opportunity for a fresh start. A fresh start from being out of work, I would add. Ask the parents of several kids if being fired is an opportunity. Tell that to the 1.64 million people who in 2023 were fired in the United States; 1.64 million people who became unemployed overnight, and who according to CNN are being given a chance for a fresh start.
According to Forbes magazine, 40% of Americans have been fired at some time, which, the media outlet notes, can help the newly unemployed overcome their own feelings and not feel alone. My grandmother used to say that misery loves company.
The solution to being fired is not, in any case, the collective struggle. Not even appealing to a trade union to protect the rights that have been violated, which, as we have seen, are collective interests. The solution, according to the CNBC channel, is for the redundant worker to improve his presence in the networks, polish his online resume, create a profile in a professional network such as Linkedin and, it goes without saying, avoid criticizing his former employer; the one that fired him for no reason, except that the owners were no longer becoming as millionaires as before, and that is why the new unemployed was redundant.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has calculated that the average time of unemployment for people who have been declared redundant from their previous job is statistically higher than for the rest of the unemployed. On average, they take 1.6 times longer to get a new job. The economic pressure to be re-employed makes this sector accept, on average, to be rehired for lower wages. It seems that the opportunity for a fresh start is, let's say, more precarious.
The logic of capital does not fail. The worst thing is how this is assimilated as the "natural" order of things. If you were left without a job because of the ambition of the 1%, don't be a loser, don't complain, find yourself another job. This way, if tomorrow you are on the other end of the stick, you will not hesitate to fire others if you are told to do so; after all, by then you will have learned that this is life and it is all about being on the right side of the equation.
In 2020, the NBC did a study on the source of support for then-President Donald Trump. In those districts where unemployment had climbed, support for the magnate had risen steadily. In 70% of the districts hardest hit by unemployment, support for Trump had risen. In Miami Dade, for example, where unemployment that year had risen by a brutal 10.7 percentage points, Trump's share of the vote increased by 12 points. All this despite the fact that, during his presidency, the Department of Labor reported the net loss of three million jobs. And several studies point out that, in Trump's own companies or his family, the number of people fired is not small at all.
There is a significant part of the humble in the United States who sees Trump as a savior of sorts; something that would surprise those who have not looked in detail at what happened, in ideological and cultural terms, in global capitalism after the debacle of the Soviet space: the exacerbation of selfishness as the only individual way out of the jungle in which one lives, and the cultural annulment of any collective horizon. In other words, the end of history.
Undoubtedly, the former president of that country reflects well that philosophy of life. Unfortunately, this hegemonic vision is not limited to the country of the North, and if anyone thinks that we are not influenced by it, it permeates us like a cancer in search of metastasis.
