The debate over the future for public workers in Hawai‘i has been heating up in recent weeks, but rather than leveling our sights on the financial elite responsible for the current economic catastrophe, we have been mired in a fight pitting working people against each other.

We seem to have lost sight of our common interests, and we have lacked the courage to question the ways that personal ambition may be influencing political figures like Gov. Lingle to engage in foolhardy experiments with our livelihoods.

Conservative political leaders and their industry allies are using the economic crisis to engineer new “solutions” which further burden ordinary poor and working folk.

For politicians like Lingle, this crisis presents an opportunity for political advancement. Like many Republican governors and legislators in the U.S., Lingle seems to hope that she can invent a particularly creative approach to the crisis, and thus earn the admiration and attention of the conservative establishment. For the wealthy and the political elite, the crisis is like a national science fair, where the winner of the blue ribbon gets to enjoy celebrity and a higher rung on the political ladder.

Of course, the common theme of all these various right-wing “science projects” is that they reduce public services, redirect public wealth into private hands, and thus make ever more jagged the rough edges of our economy for those most vulnerable.

Unfortunately, we have allowed the terms of the debate over our public workers to be dictated by these conservatives. For example, we are led to believe that public workers have but two choices: furloughs or layoffs. It comes as no surprise that a great many ordinary working people reason that furloughs are better. But why should workers be the ones to sacrifice for a crisis we didn’t create? Why aren’t those who most benefited from all the financial shenanigans being penalized, rather than the folks who had the least to do with it? These important questions are not even considered.

Another propaganda victory the conservatives can claim right now is that some workers in the private sector who are hurting are furious at public workers’ unwillingness to “feel the pain” alongside them. This narrative misdirects attention from the potential economic benefit for all workers in continuing to invest in our social services.

Not only does the economic stability of public workers prevent a ripple effect of problems like foreclosures, it is very important that our already frayed social safety nets remain in place for those families, workers and unemployed who will need them more than ever in these times. And how exactly does it help the private sector worker to see a public worker suffer, when the bankers and hedge fund managers are collecting fat bonuses paid for by public and private employees alike?

The rallying cry of the Republic Windows and Doors workers, who occupied their Chicago factory last year, was “The banks got bailed out — we got sold out.” This insight needs to be kept alive. Working people must not cede the terms of this debate to those, like Lingle, who are least likely to suffer alongside us.

Let us continue to develop our own analyses of this crisis in order to expand the debate, and develop solutions that benefit all of us who are being hurt most. We don’t have to be lab rats for Lingle’s experiment.

• Katy Rose, a Kaua‘i resident, is a longtime social and economic justice organizer.