Posted on 09/08/2001 9:56:41 AM PDT by Dixielander
Today's society is turned upside down from the world that once worked. Rewards now go to the most unproductive and those who still toil are penalized. Work continues to retain dignity, but no longer offers benefits. The most desired jobs have become in the employ of the government. While risk takers are beset upon with disproportionate taxes, excessive regulations and constant legal liabilities; most carry on even though their rational side tells them to withdraw from the fray.
It wasn't always like this, and this gradual transformation has been couched in the seduction of extravagant consumerism. Yes; people have more money than ever, but they have paid a very heavy price for the trappings of material comfort. Earning a living now has a disconnect relationship with the amount of work one performs. Putting in time and accepting the hierarchy culture of the organization, is not the same as working. The actual functions of the modern Corporation has more in common with touting a shell game than producing necessary products or services.
Advancement is proportional to the 'PC' purity that one expounds. Innovation and creative thinking takes a back seat to 'getting along to get ahead'. But getting along is no longer based upon constructive relationships and customer satisfaction. No; getting ahead now requires the aptitude to deceive and mislead the consumer, as they play phone tag, in a futile attempt to get satisfaction. The sale has become an inconvenience, interrupting your coffee break.
This kind of attitude has evolved from the unconscious perception that the bond between the Corporation and the employee has been reduced to a functional utility at best. America no longer makes what it consumes. This 'so called' service society is a make believe economy. Tasks are devised and services sold that are totally useless and superfluous. Marginal jobs are constructed to 'make work', where no real need exists. Social Security tribute is extracted and some kind of government credit is granted to the firm that trains incompetent and inadequately educated personnel. It has become a game, and the unaccustomed are told they are on their way to get ahead.
The wrenches that once built a proud Nation are now used for our own home repair of defective products. The skilled tradesman is a rare breed, and deserves our respect. But can we say the same for the IRS staffer who knows less about the tax code than the average citizen? This example is not the exception, but tragically has become the rule. The cause of this lack of awareness is not reducible to a lack of training. It actually is based in the nature of the work itself. When your business is rooted in dubious incongruity, you will never be able to equably administer public policy.
The point of Labor Day is that it is just another three day weekend. Sadly, respect for honest work has evaporated. When savvy workers wake up to the fact that they are working to support those who avoid the trappings of honest labor, their world view is shattered. This is the dilemma that we all find ourselves in, and most of us bear the shame for allowing this treachery, which has been contrived by our elite's. The system greatly benefits a select few, while the tab is left for the rest of us to pay the costs for the distortion and planned exodus of American industry.
Isn't it time to celebrate our own right to keep the fruits of our own labor? Labor Day should be a renewal of our freedom; not from the duties of toil, but from the claws of a silent partner that steals the bulk of your wealth. Your employer is not your enemy, but your government is. When you need to labor for more than five months before you may keep your own money, the political system has broken down. Use your wrenches to fix this problem once and for all. Only the dexterity of the home improvement handyman will solve this problem. The limited warranty that they attach to the purchase of your substandard items will not make you whole. Your representatives will not repair this condition. And your neighbor will not restore your homestead without your own involvement.
If there ever was a need for a STRIKE, the time has come. But the target in not your employer, but the consociate who poses as your benevolent government . . .
SARTRE - August 30, 2001
It's called Communism. Welcome to the party.
My wages are $1,000 a month. In the years I've worked for the company they've not increased. However, my commissions have increased over the years. To me that is testament to my having earned a fair income for a job well-done.
Several years ago I read about a company whose workers were guaranteed no wages at all. Their incomes were derived from the profit the company made each month. As I remember, the owner and the employees made more than a fair living.
It depends on the job and the market. There is not a sole, single factor which makes a wage "fair". (This is why it is so hard to argue with libertarians. They are partially right in their beliefs.)
Take for example, the Auto Industry. I think the workers there are probably getting 85-95% of a "fair" wage. Lower the executive pay to more reasonable levels and lower some of the dividends,(when and if they are excessive) and spread the difference out among the workers. The reason why auto workers get pretty much a fair wage is that they are unionized.
Their wage is "mostly fair", and to bring it to "full fairness", you must lower the excessive executive salaries and perks, and dividends when really excessive. Most auto companies do already have some form of profit sharing, I believe.
Take a doctors office. Assume one doctor, three nurses, and four office workers. The doctor makes $500,000 per year. The clerks make $15,000 each, and the nurses $35,000. That ain't fair. The doctor is getting too much. Clerks should make at least $25,000 and nurses $45,000. Net resultt is doctor makes $430,000 instead of $500,000. I think this is "more" fair.
And just what would a reasonable level be?
and lower some of the dividends
And what would happen when the invetors pulled out....no money,no company, no job, no pay.
What makes you think investors will pull out? What if they are getting a 20% return on investment? If you reduce their return to 16% do you think they will run away? Of course not.
Thats my point. Fairness is an "interstitial" problem IMHO. Every body is looking for something for nothing. It is true for welfare recipients. It is true for CEO's. It is true for investors. That tendency operates to reduce wages to a point "less than fair". Fairness, then, if it could be legislated (which I think is difficult if not impossible) would tend to return the "stolen" work value to the worker from the looting investor and CEO.
I assume that you are citing a real situation, that you could identify if required. Otherwise, I too can make up fairy stories.
Of course. And do these "purposes" make it more likely or less likely that CEO's and investors will pay less than what they should to workers? Logic alone dictates that the CEO's and investors will "create" some of their wealth by taking it from the pocketbooks of their workers. If a worker is getting screwed (whether big time or small time) the wage isn't really "fair."
This isn't a fairy tale. It happens every day all across America. Doctors are notoriously stingy employers. But it ain't just doctors. It's lawyers. It's building contractors. It's restaurant owners. Greed is a a very human thing.
More interesting to me, however, is the undertone I get from you that if this was not a "fairy tale", then you would think it "unfair." Good for you! You might be someone with a good sense of right and wrong.
Work continues to retain dignity, but no longer offers benefits.
No, work in the US offers the highest wages in the world, on a per capita purchasing power adjusted basis.
The most desired jobs have become in the employ of the government.
Well maybe being president, or head of the federal reserve, or a supreme court justice. The most desired jobs, and by far the most rewarded, are in entertainment, high tech, finance, higher management, the law, and medicine.
While risk takers are beset upon with disproportionate taxes, excessive regulations and constant legal liabilities; most carry on even though their rational side tells them to withdraw from the fray.
I don't think the author understands enterprenuers very well, or what makes them tick.
Putting in time and accepting the hierarchy culture of the organization, is not the same as working.
What does this mean?
The actual functions of the modern Corporation has more in common with touting a shell game than producing necessary products or services.
What products are "necessary?" Those of which the author approves?
Innovation and creative thinking takes a back seat to 'getting along to get ahead'.
Actually the apogee of the man in the grey flannel suit was in the 1950's, which was supposedly the age of conformity.
. America no longer makes what it consumes.
I'm not sure what the above means. Is this meant to be a bash on imports?
services sold that are totally useless and superfluous.
It is odd that folks are paying for the useless. They must be as stupid as a pet rock.
Marginal jobs are constructed to 'make work', where no real need exists.
Companies that did that would go out of business.
The wrenches that once built a proud Nation are now used for our own home repair of defective products.
No they're not. Almost no one repairs anything these days. You just dump it. It is a poor use of one's time to repair. It is economically inefficient. The TV repairman is gone too, for the same reason, and of course, because products actually require far less repair than they used to thanks to integreated circuits, etc.
But can we say the same for the IRS staffer who knows less about the tax code than the average citizen?
Now the above is a truly stupid statement.
Sadly, respect for honest work has evaporated.
By whom?
This is the dilemma that we all find ourselves in, and most of us bear the shame for allowing this treachery, which has been contrived by our elite's. The system greatly benefits a select few, while the tab is left for the rest of us to pay the costs for the distortion and planned exodus of American industry.
Yep, those darn elites will soon have all "productive" activity sent overseas, and we all can spend our days rearranging paper clips on our desk, or better yet, go to work by going to the beach.
When you need to labor for more than five months before you may keep your own money, the political system has broken down.
Well the author doesn't like taxes either. Actually, tax freedom day hasn't moved much in the past 40 years.
If there ever was a need for a STRIKE, the time has come. But the target in not your employer, but the consociate who poses as your benevolent government . . .
"consociate." Ah a new word.
Well, that about sums it up. The article has errors and/or stupid, ambiguous and ludicrously unqualified statements in almost every one of its sentences. But its main problem is that it is totally incoherent. Just what IS the point? If an associate of mine wrote this tract in my office, he would be fired immediately. JMO.
Concise, correct analysis. You just saved me a few minutes of typing; making me more productive. Thanks.
That is one of the funniest things I've ever read.
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