Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, the 1946 Christmas classic, is an allegory that brilliantly captures the difference between a business that works to help everyone in the community and one that works to strip mine employees and customers of every available resource. In both, profit can be made. But only when the customer, the employee and the community are equally important do you want to live in Bedford Falls.
That world can feel like a true Hollywood fantasy in today's economy, where disposable employees litter unemployment data, calculated to be closer to 10 percent when including discouraged workers. More part-time jobs have been created than full-time employment, with men, young people and low-skilled workers suffering the most. Or, as the New York Times put it, "In essence, the poor economy has replaced good jobs with bad ones."
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