Labor

This is the apprentice camera repairman. He is learning the trade under the tutelage of my friend. He is quiet at work, observational.  He is choosing a career.  I wonder about such things lately.  A bicycle shop that has been in town for twenty years just closed.  It moved from one crummy location where they had always been to a new, higher profile place.  They lasted less than a year.  There was a fellow who has worked there since it opened.  He was young then, in his mid-twenties, and a bit of a hipster.  The bicycle job let him enjoy that lifestyle.  He needn't conform much.  Eventually, he became the store's manager and had settled into his routine.  Year after year.  I wonder about him now.  What happens to him?  I'm sure he never counted on this.  Now in his mid-forties, he will have to look for something else.  What does he do?

In the days of the old west when the country was young, there was barely any regulation of corporations and no idea of social welfare or security.  Cowboys let go by Omaha Cattle Company or whomever had to fend for themselves as they could.  With little money, they still had to feed themselves and their horses, buy boots and saddles and reins.  What happened when you got too down on your luck?  The old west was as dangerous a place as you'd ever want to be, I'd guess.  Given what I know, if I were in that situation, I'm certain to have been an outlaw.  There was nothing romantic about it, I'm certain, nothing like the movies and t.v. shows I grew up with portrayed.  And somewhere around that time, there was a labor movement.  Don't hold me to dates and details.  I'm just thinking.  What do poor people do when they become desperate?  How do corporations and despots try to control them?

Things seemed pretty good in this country when there was a strong middle class and a dependable social welfare/security system to take care of the poorest of us.  When my friends complain about taxes, I tell them they ought to move to a country without them.  Bolivia, for instance.  Oh, they would love it there, I'm telling you.  You don't have to put up with infrastructures nor conveniences.

I hope the camera repair thing works out for our friend.  Seems like people ought to be able to make a living.