The wall has divided the government and the American people. The wall is fodder for talk show hosts, late night commentators and lackeys. The wall has been the top news story in every media outlet. If you are being bombarded with news about the wall, day and night, you are a victim of cheap entertainment.
Big government and big media have done a deal. Trump has thrown a bone to the media. The POTUS wants for ridiculous reasons to build a wall that will cost an outlandish amount of money. The media devours POTUS’s bone, chews it up, and spits it out all over you.
Your top picks to get news might include Fox, Breitbart, the New York Daily News, your local newspaper, headlines from the failingNew York Times, Wall Street Journal, channel surfing on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Twitter, a meme on Facebook, or from Comedian Stephen Colbert. Without mentioning all of the different ways for you to get your news, one truth is undeniable. This is your wall, and it’s being built around you.
A wall is being built around you on purpose. If you’re bombarded with news about a wall, you will not have to think about the real problems. If you think about the real problems, you’ll worry. You’ll worry because the real problems are big. Too big for you to solve.
Too big for the big boys to solve? The big boys do not want to pay the price to solve the really big problem. And to them, you’re that problem.
The big boys recently met in Davos. The World Economic Forum in Davos is where the big boys meet every year to make policy decisions. This year the business leaders at Davos focused on automating their workforces as quickly as possible. The big boys know the only way to stay competitive and to maximize their profits is by replacing you with machines.
Right now companies are moving at breakneck speed, spending billions of dollars to create highly automated operations that will drastically reduce the need for workers. A 2017 survey by Deloitte found that 53 percent of companies had already started to use machines to perform tasks previously done by humans. The figure is expected to climb to 72 percent by next year. The Brookings Institution says, “Robots could soon replace a quarter of U.S. Workers. Roughly 36 Million Americans hold jobs with ‘high exposure’ to automation.”
Who are the most at risk? Working-class white men without college educations and working-class women who dominate clerical and administrative positions. Screwed over by the big boys, big government and big business, there is stigma attached to having grown up as working class, or choosing the economic lifestyle of the working class. Yet, working-class white men without college educations are at the heart of the Trump base.
Kai-Fu Lee, the author of “AI Superpowers” and a longtime technology executive, predicts that artificial intelligence will eliminate 40 percent of the world’s jobs within fifteen years.*
Fifteen years! That’s a long ways away, you say! That’s what the big boys say too! I’ll take my money and be gone by then, they say! Now, here’s the really bad news: maybe, you’ll be gone too.
The big boys are under tremendous pressure to jump headlong into the Fourth Industrial Revolution without considering the workers’ needs, and especially your need for a job. The elimination of many jobs is likely to come sooner than later. The working-classes will be hit the hardest by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. And that means you—working-class white men without college educations at the heart of the Trump base.
You believe in the wall. It’s not your fault. You have to believe in something. And these days, there’s not much to believe in or trust. You are angry at the social and economic changes that are working against you. You regard the college educated with disgust and contempt, calling themliberals. You believe the wall will stop immigrants from taking your job. You believe the border wall will put a brick on the future. You believe a wall will stop the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
You live in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, or Wisconsin, or Indiana and you want the wall. You don’t share a border with Mexico. What is the wall going to do for you? Will the wall re-train you for the jobs of the Twenty-First Century? Will the wall pay for your health care? Will the wall give you a life better than the lives your parents had? Maybe you live on the Texas or Arizona border. Will the wall give you a job that pays enough for you to afford a home, or raise your family? What will the wall do for your children? Exactly, what is this wall going to do for you?
The wall is not going to give you a good life.
You need to get what you rightfully deserve. And it’s not a wall. Educating and re-training you for the jobs of the Twenty-First Century isn’t a privilege. It’s your right. You need more than a dead-end job. You need to be offered a way to thrive and grow. The money that would be spent for a wall could be used for your lifelong training to give you the chance to explore and have access to many different ways to make a living. You have a powerful voice that can be heard. Speak up and demand what is rightfully yours.
Otherwise, the wall will be your biggest nightmare. The big boys in business or in the White House do not have to pay the price for your wall. The Mexicans will not pay for your wall. You are going to pay for your wall. And your children will pay for your wall. Day and night, you are being bombarded with news about the wall. But you are a victim of cheap entertainment. And it’s not free. You will pay the price. And the price is more than you can afford. That my friends, is the proverbial writing on the wall.
Patricia Vaccarino has written award-winning film scripts, press materials, articles, speeches, Web content, marketing collateral, and books. She is currently working on a sequel to YONKERS Yonkers! Please see her press kit.
Research Sources:
Robots Could Replace Quarter of U.S. Workers by Matt O’Brien, Associated Press 1/24/19
https://www.apnews.com/6034c9ce1af347ec8da996e39b29c51b
*The Hidden Automation Agenda of the Davos Elite by Kevin Roose, New York Times 1/25/19
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/technology/automation-davos-world-economic-forum.html
The Fleecing of Millennials by David Leonhardt, New York Times 1/27/19
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/opinion/buttigieg-2020-millennials.html
The ‘Hybrid’ Skills That Tomorrow’s Jobs Will Require by Lauren Weber, Wall Street Journal 1/22/19
Who are Trump’s Base? Data for Progress
https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2018/8/21/data-for-politics-14-who-is-trumps-base
Deloitte Global third annual RPA Survey
https://www2.deloitte.com/bg/en/pages/technology/articles/deloitte-global-rpa-survey-2018.html
Trump Doesn’t care about governing or being reelected By Robert Schlesinger, NBC News 12/26/18
The Wall Marks a Deep Cultural Divide Fight by Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal 1/24/19
Patricia Vaccarino
Patricia Vaccarino is an accomplished writer who has written award-winning film scripts, press materials, articles, essays, speeches, web content, marketing collateral, and ten books.