March 15, 2000

Letters Editor
The Nation

To the Editor:

Your generally excellent cover story of March 27 by Christopher Cook ("Temps Demand a New Deal," March 27, 2000, Vol. 270, no. 12, pp. 13-19) points out that "Nearly one-third of America's workers -- about 30 million -- toil in temporary, contracted, self-employed, leased, part-time and other 'non-standard' arrangements, according to a 1998-99 study by the Economic Policy Institute." Cook adds, further on, that "Government and industry studies show 60-70 percent of contingents wish for something more stable." This demonstrates that statistics can be made to do pretty much whatever one wants them to, because it begs an important question: What of the remaining 30-40 percent of contingents?

Surely there's some news value, and some data fit for left analysis, in the fact that about 10 million people in the U.S. work in "non-standard" arrangements by choice, prefer to "toil" that way, and don't "wish for something more stable." Imagine reversing Cook's emphasis: "Government and industry studies show 30-40 percent of contingents don't wish for something more stable." Does that story not merit some attention from your intrepid reporters?

I'm a free-lance writer and part-time teacher with over thirty years' experience with working in "non-standard" arrangements. I'm also a founding member of the National Writers Union and an elected local delegate thereto. The temp life is not for everyone, and shouldn't be forced on anyone. But the left media's persistent slighting and/or ignoring of the millions of us "second-class workers" who temp by choice is both journalistically irresponsible and offensive.

Yours,
/s/ A. D. Coleman

This letter to the editor of The Nation went unpublished.