Back in 2012, the long-beleaguered Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania ran out of money — literally — and the unionized teachers and staff agreed to work without pay. Well, it’s happened again — at least the part about the district being out of cash and all of the teachers, support staff, bus drivers and other adults in the system agreeing to work for free.
No, no, Americans, not you, too. Back in Ukraine in the 1990s, I remember feeling so much rage and disgust towards the people who would agree to work for free (sometimes for a year or longer) that I realized that if I didn’t leave the country, I would inflict grave bodily harm on someone.
But at least the post-Soviet people had an excuse. They had collectively woken up in an entirely different country without any warning. They were traumatized and severely depressed as a result of this shattering transformation. They are still stupid, irresponsible idiots who preferred to deprive their own children of basic necessities rather than get a grip on themselves and go find paying work but at least there is an explanation for their passivity.
Americans, though! People who have not been infantilized by a totalitarian regime that, for decades, eliminated and persecuted anybody with the entrepreneurial spirit! People whose courageous workers’ movements transformed labor conditions throughout the civilized world! You, too, are patiently trudging to work for free, setting a horrible precedent for your colleagues everywhere? And there is not a single person among all these unionized workers with enough self-respect to refuse to be humiliated and exploited in this way?
This is profoundly disappointing. If people who have not known any real hardship (compared to how the rest of the world lives) are so pathetic and beaten down, then it becomes unclear what needs to happen for anybody to recover any human dignity.
Clarissa's Blog 
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