Letter: The value of a job - by Monica Wehby

The Bulletin, Published Jul 17, 2014, Bend, Oregon
Few things in this world have an impact on someone’s life like that of a job. For a recent college graduate, a job is the first step toward realizing a dream; for the unemployed, it is a sense of renewed confidence; for a mother, it is the means by which she can promise her child a future of opportunities. For many, a job offers us hope, gives us purpose, and provides us the means to take care of the truly important things in life.

When we discuss jobs in the course of politics, our discourse is often relegated to numbers and spreadsheets. Our economy becomes a measure of profits and losses, rather than the individuals and families affected by it. In doing so, we lose sight of what it means for someone to lose a job, or for a business to close. Too many politicians today are guilty of that — they forget that the bottom line of a business isn’t just a bottom line; it’s food on someone’s table or the clothes on someone’s child; they forget that bad policy has real-life consequences.

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