Verbal Warfare with Whomever’s Boyfriend
A review of Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein
I support workers — despite my most recent byline: “5 ways to increase efficiency with a labor management tool.” I realize those words in that order would make Dolores Huerta’s hackles raise. But it’s a 9-5 and not that many people are using the tool. So it’s chill. I’m such an ally to organized labor that I spent 10 minutes trying to explain the concept of a union to my friend’s boyfriend at a party, to which he responded “what if the labor conditions are good?” Clearly he was a mole for the boardroom and it would be a liability to divulge any more information.
From my first job, shoveling Italian ice for cash in a now-shuttered formica health violation, to whatever I am currently doing (marketing? Idk), work has inspired deep feelings of uneasiness over the future. Because like, what is the future gonna be like? I have no plan? But as the fine factory workers of Janesville, WI will tell you (after rightfully punching me in the face for the prior two paragraphs) even a plan cannot save you. Plans are derailed by boardroom executives and Republicans and recessions. Give a company 20+ of your best years and the Powers That Be will lay you off before you can say the words “bare market” (like… why isn’t the market wearing clothes).
Sometimes I feel conflicted enjoying nonfiction, lapping up real peoples’ pain and struggles like a little orange kitten at a saucer of cream. But on the flip side, without books I would be totally ignorant to the thought process of an ex-factory worker getting her associates degree in criminology. My heart beats for her and the other people who were collateral damage to the terrible decision making of men in suits. I don’t understand a lot of the economics that led up to the 2008 recession, but most of all, I do not understand how people can implement policies that they know will cause suffering (looking at you, Paul Ryan 😡). Like if you think the government shouldn’t help people then maybe don’t work in government…? Not working in government would make it more difficult to be a simp to corporate interests, however. We find ourselves in a conundrum of elephantine proportions (Republican pun).
Goldstein does a good job of demonstrating how layoffs and factory shut downs trickle down into every crevice of the Janesville community, creating an overall aura of garbage juice. There isn’t really a warm fuzzy B-plot. Look to the helpers? See how people triumphed over preventable bank account adversity? No. It’s like trying to sugarcoat an olive.
Janesville is sad, bizarrely a-racial (it provides great fodder for a college age marxist), and a bag of rocks to whatever puff of optimism one might feel about the American experiment. Ultimately, if you believe people should be paid $9.50 an hour you have a calcified heart; I will wage verbal warfare with whomever’s boyfriend is of this belief.