Colette Noble's kids used to tell her, "You'll never lose your job--you work too hard."
That quote was in this article on Yahoo! that kept popping up on my mailbox home page. I think it's a good illustration of a lot of the angst out there. What we were always told growing up is that if you work really hard and play by the rules, then good things will happen. But now more and more people are realizing that's not true at all.
A lot of the angst in Occupy Wall Street I think comes from that place. A lot of people worked hard at their jobs, followed the rules, and what did they get? A pink slip. Meanwhile the sleazy assholes on Wall Street broke all the rules, fucked up the economy, and got bailed out by the taxpayers, many of whom went on to lose their jobs. And even a lot of the Wall Street pricks who lost their jobs got bonuses they didn't deserve.
The other part of the big myth was that if you work hard and follow the rules, the company will value you and keep you around until you're old enough to retire. The idea back in the '50s and '60s was that you could work for the company forever and as long as you worked hard and followed the rules, they'd take care of you.
That idea went out the window too. Older people are especially finding it hard to get work because employers see all that "experience" as being too expensive. It's cheaper and easier to hire some college kid for a fraction of the salary. That is if the job isn't outsourced to China or India or Mexico. Or eliminated outright by a computer or robot. And even though you've been working there for 30 years, don't expect management to give a crap about that, not if it means they can wring out an extra stock point. As for bonuses, health insurance, and so forth, you can forget about that, especially if you're a public employee. If you're a public employee, you should be working for free according to the GOP.
As I said, I think a lot of people's frustration stems from the disillusionment of finding out the world doesn't work as neatly as they thought. All the supposed "virtues" about hard work and loyalty are a one-way street. Don't expect the CEO to believe that crap; how do you think he/she got to be the CEO? By hard work and loyalty? Yeah, right.
So in this holiday season it seems there are a lot of unrepentant Scrooges out there, which is making things lousy for all the Cratchetts and Tiny Tims out there. Bah Humbug, indeed!
Which is a reminder that the Bah Humbug Blahgfest is December 15! Details here. Sign up today and maybe win a $25 Amazon gift card. Which might not be in time to buy any Christmas gifts, but you might be able to get something nice for New Year's or Valentine's Day.
How many times can I sign up? I'm ready to do it all over again. I love our finianciers of the world, who continue to come up with clever ways of making me poor.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a great job of articulating the problem facing us right now. I just hope our leaders can come together and make the necessary compromises to get us out of this economic morass.
ReplyDeleteThe likes of Ann Coulter and others that pontificate on Fox News have been calling every liberal and democrat lazy for years. I get so sick of that bitch defining democrats as people who live in their mom's basement. I'm a democrat, work 40-hours a week, and will never enjoy the kinds of money that she, Riley, and others of her ilk enjoy.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. The country has reached a turning point where hard work and values will no longer guarantee that you can achieve the American Dream. Obama said in his speech yesterday from Kansas this very same point. IN his own words, he said that a child born into poverty today has no guarantee through hard work of ever being middle class. That is the economic climate that has been created in the United States. It is a place where a "lucky" person has health insurance.
Like WHAT THE FUCK?! You have to be lucky to have health insurance. ObamaCare has seen to some of these issues, giving families low cost alternatives to procure health insurance on their own. But they're trying to get rid of that using the justification that if families cannot afford health insurance to begin with, then forcing them to do so hurts them even more.
And then there's the fact that so much wealth is tied up in the top 1% and they could honestly give a shit about everyone else. I think this is really true. They don't want to come out and say it, but a lot of those folks in the top 1% could care less if others in the 99% just went off and died. I really do think that.
I think a general strike would be a lot more effective than "occupying" anything. The 1% thinks they don't need us, but what happens when there's no one to do their cooking, their laundry, tend their gardens, drive them around, fix their computers, hold their golf bags, serve their drinks, etc.?
ReplyDeleteA lot of these people need some Christmas ghosts to show them that while they're buying a new mile-long yacht, other people are struggling to get enough food for their kids to eat. Sure there are some lazy people who do game the welfare system and such, but most are not lazy, just unlikely to be born on the wrong side of our increasingly feudal system.
I have some friends who are under water on their house (like a lot of people). HE lost his job recently and had to take a new one at 50% of what he was making. They couldn't keep up their house payments. SHE told me, "We did everything we were supposed to do..., and, now, we're going to lose our house." You can't win anymore by playing by the rules.
ReplyDeleteThere's a book you should read: The Fourth Turning. I haven't actually read it, but my wife did and told me all about it as she did. I think you might find it interesting.
It's time for a revolution.