Excluding the student wards of DeKalb much of the 90% of non-voters in DeKalb County are working class people primarily of the private sector variety who “perceive” they can’t afford to keep up with the growing cost of government services. No matter how dire their finances become their public servants must have more and that gets tougher to swallow when their complaints about perks and discretionary spending are ridiculed or dismissed as irrelevant and when outright corruption is ignored.
Many are the tradesmen, laborers and related service workers of the construction industry who were not long ago proud members of the American middle class but have since joined the rank of the impoverished. The construction industry was once the third largest employer in the county. The trades is one of very few private sector occupations where rank and file employees can earn middle income salaries without a college degree.
A growing number of the disengaging, swelling ranks of those being asked to give more and get less are those who were once public servants but did not have the seniority or tenure to survive the budget cuts made necessary when the hammers stopped swinging and the new construction EAV ceased filling the coffers.
Unless they moved, because in northern Illinois there is little chance of a recovery that would return most of them to their former standard of living, they’ve lost their home or they sold it or they’d take a very reasonable offer for it. They either have to uproot their family and take their skills elsewhere or take a second job or change careers and do it quickly before the next mortgage or tax bill is due. Or downsize as in standard of living.
Among them were those who had been through this ordeal before. Some were former assembly line workers for the manufacturing industry who turned to construction to make the transition made necessary by trade agreements designed to lower the cost of labor.
I think these are the kind of people that are voting with their feet. As long as there’s a for sale sign in their yard or the threat of a foreclosure notice in their mailbox they won’t be voting in any local election. Why bother?
The extent of loss to the community is unknown but far greater than the disengagement from the voting process. These people eventually pack up and leave. Renters replace homeowners in the neighborhoods or boards replace windows in the houses once homes. Despite escalating tax rates, revenue declines. Less customers spending less money equals more business failures.
Its happening. In the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce candidate forum almost every candidate spoke of survival as a community. Foreclosures far outpace new building permits in any community in the county. Crimes of desperation are on the rise.
An 11.5% voter turnout is an indictment against an elected government. Only those on the inside (Chumbolones) who’ve got it good think otherwise. Rather than continuing down the path of status quo by dismissing the disengagement of its citizenry local government should engage its public with more opportunity for others to share in the middle class standard of living.
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5 Comments
@unemployed: I hope your situation improves quickly. No, not all public servants are Chumbolones. Just because one works in the private sector does not mean they are not Chumbolones. Chumbolones accept endless tax increases in response to corruption and mismanagement instead of fixing it. And you are right I did miss a significant number of those on the outside looking in.
@Stephen: I think President Clinton and now President Obama had a little to do with facilitating the effort to reduce labor costs, too. Its truly a bipartisan screw up. Another local example was the selling out of the public’s safety and welfare by Republicans and Democrats on the DeKalb County Board to the Corporate interests of Waste Management and the 17 county dump they’re trying to subject the residents of Cortland to.
We now have Socialism, Inc., and that is wreaking havoc on citizens and mom and pop operations who are priced out of business with the Corporate and Government greed.
@randy: Thanks and I hope your situation improves quickly.
Are all public servants Chumbolones? How about those once employed by social service agencies? We got budget axed. I think your missing a bunch of people in what is otherwise a good editorial.
Corporate influence has polluted all three branches of our federal government and many state legislatures. While average citizen’s rights have been stripped, corporate rights have increased due to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts has consistently voted against citizens in favor of corporations and government. Madison and jefferson never meant for this unelected branch of the government to have such power. Ralph Nader has warned for years about the rising power of corporations and their undo influence on our democracy. Corporations have driven our misguided trade and tax policies that are killing the American middle class. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Republican party has facilitated the deindustrialization of America and decline of our standard of living.
It’s about time! I hope every elected so called leader reads this!!! They’ve turned us into 2nd class citizens or slaves. Good job telling it like it really is.
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and another think: There are Chumbolones in the private sector construction industry. Architects that donate campaign funds to school construction referendums and then get a percentage of the construction costs are about the best (or worst) example there is other than maybe a commission-paid debt bond salesman doing the same thing. Chumbolonian disease spreads quickly in Pay to Play politics and public works.
Because I strive to be Politically Correct 🙄 I should say that Chumbolones do not like being called Chumbolones. They prefer to be referred to as “Good People.”
Good people are allowed to practice corruption as long as it benefits the community or institution or good cause they are working for.