Apr 14, 2013 5 min read

This week, there’s been a crop of interesting discussions on Herald-Standard’s Facebook page about the economics of Fayette County. Though we have experienced a boom in commerce — particularly in Uniontown, with its recent influx of chain restaurants and stores — as of February, we are still ranked 51st for unemployment out of all Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, at 8.9 percent. And according to the 2011 Census, 19 percent of people living in Fayette County have incomes below the poverty line.

On Facebook, Herald-Standard asked the community to address these coexisting trends. How can we simultaneously see Home Depot, TJ Maxx, Michaels, IHOP, Olive Garden and more popping up in once-vacant spaces and also see an embarrassingly high jobless rate? We have a respectable — and improving — tourism stream here, too, driven by our rich history and the humble but lovely natural beauty of the Laurel Ridge and the Yough River. Why aren’t these resources and the tourism and commerce they bring making a dent in our economic troubles?

A couple of Facebook users, including one business owner, suggested the county’s own laziness keeps us down, that Fayette County’s population doesn’t want to work — they have jobs and then quit them, preferring to collect unemployment checks and other government assistance.

Maybe the problem is not laziness, and not that people do the math and make a choice to go on government assistance because it’s a better way to provide for their families, but the fact that their job pays less than welfare in the first place.

And there’s the crux of it, in my opinion, which several people on Facebook suggested as well: service industry jobs just don’t pay very much. Particularly service industry jobs at the chain restaurants and stores that light Uniontown’s landscape.

Though conservatives like to bemoan the consequences when small businesses are required to provide health insurance or raise their workers’ minimum wage, most restaurants and stores are not small businesses — they’re big, multi-million dollar businesses. And part of their business model is relying on a cheap (and grateful) workforce. A workforce that’s told, given today’s economy, how fortunate they are to be working 39 hours a week, without benefits, for $7.50 an hour. Think of all the people who would kill to work any job! Quit complaining and get back to work!

And so, even though CEO’s have seen a 10 percent increase in their salaries since the start of the recession, and even though the overall economy is, in fact, trending upward, they keep peddling the notion that we are financially downtrodden. You better hitch your cart to whatever horse comes along, and you better whistle while you do it.

As one Facebook commenter pointed out, companies do their research before bringing new business to an area. Chain companies are not going to open a franchise in Uniontown if it doesn’t believe the restaurant will succeed there. Do they know something we don’t? Could it be they came here because they know that they’ll find no shortage of eager workers, ready to work hard for very little money?

We have a mindset that dictates any job is better than the shame of government assistance. Even if that job puts you on the endless hamster wheel of collecting a paycheck too small to support one person, let alone a family of four, and doing a demanding job that leaves no time or energy to look for new work. This is not a liberal myth. It happens everyday.

For example, a contributor to the Facebook discussion shared her story of working two jobs, as a part-time educator and server. “I’m pretty much working from paycheck to paycheck,” she says. “I get no state aid, I’m losing my health insurance, plus all [the] household bills. I couldn’t imagine if I had kids! There is no way I could make it.”

She has a master’s degree.

Ultimately, the workforce is put down no matter what choices they make. Unhappy with your working conditions? Find new work! But don’t even think about asking for help while you do that. Meanwhile, the upper echelon is praised, no matter what choices they make. Oh, you got a 10 percent increase in your pay this year, while simultaneously laying off 20 percent of your workers because of the “bad economy”? Stupendous choice, looking out for yourself like that. You are our country’s core talent! The mountain stream from which our livelihoods trickle!

I wish I had the brains to use this last paragraph to offer solutions. Year after year, it’s the same trend in Fayette County. We’ve been near the bottom in our state, economically, for a long time, despite having a lot to offer residents and visitors. What it’ll take, I think, is an overhauling of the way we think about work, poverty and social responsibility. This shift has been a long time coming, but I suspect we’re not ready yet.

Jessica Vozel is a resident of Perryopolis.