Well…since it is Labor Day, I think it’s appropriate that I comment on the role of labor in our society and what I see as the demonization of labor, and the active, organized program of the right to destroy the unions and put the worker “back in their place”. One of the assertions that is always made by the new robber barons is the reason for moving jobs offshore is that American labor just costs too much; all the while the compensation gap between the CEOs and general labor is at it’s highest point in history and the real cost of labor is the same that it was 30 years ago. So, who is it that costs too much? The question that I always ask when discussing this problem is “how much is enough?” If the CEOs would halve their pay, saving the company millions, then how many workers could be retained? Is the man (or woman) at the top worth hundreds of workers?
I think we are now seeing the true cost of the hollowing out of the middle class and the elevation of the CEO and banker to godlike status….and the scapegoating of labor for all of the ills in the economy…it is time for us to stand up and say enough…without the American worker and consumers there would be no economy for the right to distort; there would be no money for business to steal, and this wouldn’t be the great country that it is. Let’s hope there is still a reason to have a Labor Day next year….
Well…have been reading a lot today…yeah, I know, I do that everyday but today it seems that an idea has formed that I wasn’t even thinking about. Weird, huh? Not really, I’ll bet that happens to everyone…we have this long, protracted recession on our hands and one thing that I haven’t heard anything about is the decline of the middle class and it’s effect on the recovery. Since 75% of the economy is consumer spending, when the consumers have been squeezed as they have been by outsourcing of jobs, wage cuts, and rising health care costs, the engine of growth that used to be the middle class can only sputter. It has been an orchestrated attack on labor by the right and business that has led us to these straights; where the average worker makes less today than he did 30 years ago but the top one percent’s share of the economy has grown from 9 percent 30 years ago to almost 25% today. It is clear that it has been the goal of the right to decimate organized labor but I can’t understand why this same labor keeps voting for them because they will “get government out of the way” and allow them to keep more of their money. But more of less wages is always going to be less than what they would have had if the playing field wasn’t so tilted to business. And, the repubs have their thumb on the scale taking more and more from you and me and giving it to the rich.
I’ll end with a question that I now ask of all business but was originally aimed at GM: “Who is going to buy your 40 thousand dollar Suburbans when the middle class is destroyed?” I think we now know the answer….
This one has been bubbling ever since Tom got me a copy of “Four Way Street” by Crosby Stills Nash and Young and I heard this wonderful little song that ends the album. The lyrics go like this: find the cost of freedom buried in the ground, Mother Earth will swallow you, lay your body down…and then it repeats…all a capella. I’m going to finish this one up later today or tomorrow…but it’s going to be about the most poignant way that the cost of freedom is measured. I’ll try to not be political because that will minimize the overwhelming meaning of that sacrifice.
I have all kinds of thoughts and fragments of ideas running through my head right now from the current sacrifices being made by our military but also of Martin Luther King, the Kennedy Brothers, the four Kent State students, and the many who gave their lives during the civil rights struggle trying to make this country a better place. But I’m having trouble making sense of the fragments; to make something cogent from the feelings that come whenever I hear that song. I will keep trying because I think it’s important for all of us as Americans to make sure these sacrifices were not made in vain; that they are not used as props for political gain or to divide us…maybe we can use the universality of this great gift to help us understand that we are all still Americans no matter what the issues are that some use to tear us apart.
Well…that last one did not go as I had hoped and even looking at it now, I don’t know how to fix it..so, let’s just write it off and I may try to make it clearer at a later date…but not today…will probably go out and have a few beers with G in about an hour. So, tomorrow should be better and at least a little more lucid…
Well…I really have no clue where this idea came from but it goes something like this: Why do people, corporations, and other organizations use people like they do? Why do they think it’s okay to manipulate people for their own gain, either political of monetary? This isn’t going that well…so I’m going to make lunch, take a break and come back…well…still haven’t had lunch yet…had a few other things that just got in the way…but it is cooking and so I thought I’d get back to this.
This one is going to be little jumbled but I’ll start with the general idea of people using other people for their own ends..like the Catholic priests preying on their parishioners for their own cruel reasons. But that is just a small one compared to the systematic, organized use of people that range from outright slavery that has happened throughout the years to the less obvious manipulation of people in the US by Freedomworks and the other billionaires that are backing the tea party movement. Is it human nature to take advantage of other humans, and if it is, why doesn’t everyone do it? Lunch is ready so I’ll be back later…okay…I’m back…the Freedomworks thing…well…it is using all of the disaffected people in the US for it’s particular business reasons, something that I think has been underreported, by getting deregulation repubs elected which will make the billionaires backing it lots of money and give them the chance to move more jobs offshore…well…basically getting them back to the Bush years. What do the people who are part of this movement think it’s all about? Do they like being used so cynically?
this is a placeholder but you’ll get a good one tomorrow….come on back…please…no, really, come back, this could be a good one…but I won’t promise anything…you know how the creative process goes…at least with me…
Well…this idea popped into my head this morning and I thought I’d share it…I remember growing up that most of the people you met and interacted with on any given day were pretty nice and courteous and the act of being nice never set you apart. But these days, with the coarsening of our society, everyone is so on edge, so ready to assert their ‘rights” that people doing simple acts of niceness are held up as being somehow different or naive. But I don’t think that is the case, at least I don’t want to believe it. Why can’t we smile when the person in front of us in the checkout lane takes their time unloading their shopping cart and then a minute to talk to the cashier? Why does everyone’s behavior have to fit what we want it to be?
I admit, I have been one of those people that angered easily when people don’t drive fast enough or can’t make up their mind at the coffee shop….but I am proposing that we start to think of what type of person we want to be and what impact our behavior has on others. I no longer want to be a part of what people see as the inevitable lowering of acceptable standards of behavior….I’m going to promise to try to do better….and I hope some of you will join me…
Yeah….I know and I agree..that little screed about Erik Prince was getting near the top if it was not over it…but this guy made millions by his connections that aren’t available to the regular folks and it irritates the heck out of me when these guys want tax cuts for the wealthy but they don’t have any problems using our tax money for their private schemes. Don’t get me wrong, I like some rich people…I’ve even wanted to be one and tried as hard as I could to achieve richness but it wasn’t to be. But, even with that said, I am still going to call them as I see them and continue to call out people that think their opinions are worth more than yours or mine just because they are wealthy. That’s not what this country was built on but it appears the direction it is going, and that troubles me as it should you….maybe more later…
Well…read this little nugget when I was out at the coffee shop this morning…that Erik Prince, the dark lord of Blackwater, is moving himself and his company to Abu Dhabi, his reasons being the pesky investigations into the gun-running, murder, and other acts of malfeasence that his company has been known for since its inception. Waa, Waa,waa…geez, aren’t you tired of these privileged repubs whining and crying when they are forced to follow the same rules as the rest of us? It’s endemic to these folks that they see themselves as different than the rest of us, and by extension, that the rules don’t apply. Ole GW and Cheney are the poster boys for this type of behavior but they are rivaled by Vitter and the rest of the repub elite. So, I say to Erik Prince (and I wish I could say it to the rest of the repubs) good riddance; watch what happens when you break the law there…you’re going to find yourself in the slammer without the protection of your repub buddies.
Just another example of the rich being “born on third base” and thinking they hit a triple…geez…