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JOBS AND THE WORK PLACE
Tue Mar 30 14:09:55 2004
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http://www.pushhamburger.com/chapter.htm
JOBS AND THE WORK PLACE



The sweat shop, with its dangerous work conditions, minimum wage not
yet legislated, children exploited without compunction, is not a picture
of the dark ages ... "it was only yesterday."

Those conditions were representative of city life in the early 1900's.
It was the normal environment where a predominance of new immigrants
clustered. This was where they would gather their wits and aim for a
better life. They quickly understood what was required and amidst a
maelstrom of indoctrination hurdles, they forged ahead and their efforts
paid off.

Back then, reward for effort might have appeared to be happening at a
snails pace. In retrospect, as my thoughts wander back to then, I can
only regard the advances made at that time to be amazingly rapid. Did
this create a problem? Was this "new" strongly developing class of
achievers rising too fast, getting uncomfortably close to penetrating
"Power's Towers"?

Unionism was surging ahead -- minimum wage was established -- child
labor laws were enacted. Everyone, even those with minimal education,
were climbing the ladder to success. "Achievement," possible for all,
permeated the social climate.

America was surging ahead as never before. A courageous
entrepreneurial climate was largely responsible for ongoing success.
Destructive corporate practices, advanced by socially sanitized MBA's
... was yet to come.

For the moment, corporate careers promised a good living and most
important "stability." Newly developing technologies began to set
agendas for the educational system. Students were pleased to graduate,
armed with specialties tuned to industries' needs. We were still a
manufacturing based society. Employment opportunities were broad
ranging. Our industrial base was expanding ... "not eroding."

Welfare, social security, income tax, were newly emerging concepts.
Prosperity for the increasing middle class was just as new. They were
the avant-guard for America's surging success. It led to undaunted
progression. Everyone was focused on bettering themselves ... and they
could. The notion of creating government monitored safety nets wasn't
needed. The traditional family was not threatened. Educational tools
were rewardingly accurate. The community was involved and socially
entwined. Concern for others was still alive and functioning.

This "praised, energetic society" forged ahead. It advanced from
crowded city cliff dwellers to suburbanite home owners. They departed
from train, trolley, bus rider, to proud owners of shiny new
automobiles. The sought after forty hour work week became reality.
Leisure time, disposable income, continuing trust that the bubble would
only expand, kept it growing bigger.

Honest effort and pride in accomplishment was a winning formula. That
factor made all else possible, or so it would seem. In short order, the
guidelines became insignificant. A new breed of corporate masterminds,
consumed with greed and rewarded for it ... implanted their

socially destructive objectives. Product, product quality, worker
consideration, fell prey to daily stock market performance requirements.
Paraphrasing a board room remark, "GM doesn't sell cars; it sells
stock." What was the end result of this arrogance? Japan, Germany,
England, eagerly moved into the U.S. auto market. They remain embedded
and prosperous until today. We are asked to accept a transformed picture
of our economy ... the "nonsense" of an unrestrained global market
place.

Our socially responsible formula in tatters, resentment and mistrust
pervades the mass of hurting, disillusioned, workers ... destroying
their social fabric. Workers that made America great, vested their
future in believing, are now suffering the treachery of trashed
promises. Again, I must repeat ... "It's not the buggy-whip syndrome; it
's the greed syndrome."

Our economy has had its ups and downs before. Unemployment reached
much higher levels than today's publicized numbers. Temporary disruption
of the work force is not a new phenomenon. Abrupt and extreme
dislocation of the work force "is a new and frightening happening." This
shift in job opportunity was formulated behind our backs. If this
planned switch to a service society was forecast, approached honestly,
open for national discussion, there might have been a chance it could
have been designed to be successful for all. Would that have been a bad
way to go?

Before society was beset with today's chaotic, hateful downsizing and
restructuring, people willingly listened to explanations. When
intelligently presented with facts, accepting a glitch appeared to be
reasonable. Faith and the willingness to believe in a return to normalcy
was still possible.

Recessions of varying degrees came one after another, but as
disruptive as they were they seemed manageable. Never did the "glitch"
elevate anxieties to the point where we reached a level of combative
disintegration. During all previous up and down cycles faith in the
system prevailed. There was always a rosier future on the horizon ... a
believable rosier future.

Life did get better. A thirty five hour work week was in the wind.
Some corporations had already instituted a forty hour four day week,
affording families more leisure time.

Everyone! banks, corporations, workers, appeared to be on the same
wave length, convinced the future would continue to promote mutually
beneficial advantages for all.

Banks, in particular, were at the forefront of displaying confidence.
Credit was freely dispersed. Weren't the banks determined to shower us
with credit ... confirming the recipient's ability to handle it? If one
had any doubts about the future and the ability to repay debt, banks
were instrumental in dispelling such anxieties. We were on our way to
owing our lives to the company store. An accident?

Corporate promised ... workers believed. We were glad to have them.
They were glad to have us. Who did more for whom?

It was a time when I witnessed computer repairmen advance to marketing
executives ... trained within the

company. I witnessed office personnel at Aramco being sent to the
Middle East for high level training ... within the company. I witnessed
many success stories, where people with intelligence, not necessarily
with degrees, made it to the top ... trained within the company.

Small, entrepreneurial family businesses were sprouting up wherever
you looked. Under the elevated trains in Brooklyn, a cluttered drab
store, selling mops, pots, and assorted housewares eventually became a
splendid store on Manhattan's 5th. Avenue. A hard working electrician,
carrying his load of tools on bus and train, converting gas to electric
light, eventually had crews working throughout the city. A baker from
Europe, starting with a small facility, the bakery and a four table
restaurant, eventually grew to develop an extensive bread delivery
business. Another newcomer to America began by nailing shingles on the
roofs of Levittown homes. He grew to the extent where his real estate
holdings became legendary and was written about in the Readers Digest.

While this freedom to progress appeared to be America's solid
doctrine, all too soon corporations showed signs of how they could
exercise muscle. Merger mania grew, in spite of laws that were supposed
to prevent the inevitable ... "too much corporate power." Mergers with
suspicious motives, hostile take-overs, junk bond deception, were
visible gathering storm clouds. It was obvious, "Power" -- not
improvement ... was on a rampage. It wasn't long before workers' notions
of opportunity and security, began to melt away. Every merger or
takeover produced sell-offs and lay-offs. As power got fatter, we got
leaner. Many of us went broke.

Middle management, a substantial segment of the middle class, had the
rug pulled from under them. No longer could the emissaries of power,
"our silver-tongued renegades in government" preach the glory of
tomorrow. The words of Barnum, "a sucker is born every minute" had
reached a climax. The sucker was waking up. The "Chip" not yet fully
utilized, was beginning to emerge as the ultimate tool of power.
Fighting back still appeared to be possible. Now! waiting much longer
... may insure impossibility.

The middle class society that brought America to her greatness was
unconscionably altered and dismantled. The dedicated workers who created
the bubble of growth -- who cooperated in every way to ensure its future
... were unceremoniously dumped. "Power" affirmed its capabilities of
ultimate control. Normally expected job longevity, ensuring a worker's
future well being, was being eradicated. As a result, the "Family" was
relegated to continue its slide to oblivion.

Debt, so readily showered on us, became a noose around our necks. As
our death rattles grew in intensity, consumerism, the "wheels of power's
limousines" ... was going flat. That didn't seem to matter so much. It's
easier to repair a tire than restore a life. "Power" knew that and
proved that.

Today, turmoil reigns as never before. Corporations' profits, greater
than ever, stock values flying high, have been created by inexcusable
downsizing ... a practice that will come back to haunt them. Those who
have gotten the ax are being bombarded by government to embrace
retraining. Our government, though they secretly sponsored corporate
advantage, now tries to sweet-talk us into submission. If they succeed
we will all wind up "Pushing Hamburger." Will the Pacific Rim economic
expansion be receiving economic refugees from the USA?

As if there is not enough greed created chaos, more is being cooked
up. Welfare reform, an attempt at improvement, is being engineered by
sadistic minds. It is being designed to force welfare recipients into an
already shrinking job base, which has displayed an inability to "keep
the American family together." Crazy? Clever?

General Motors closes a plant in the U.S.. Needed downsizing and
reorganization are some of the publicized explanations. Jobs gone, a
community dedicated to the corporation is put in jeopardy as a new
General Motors plant appears in Mexico. Is this chicanery or stratagem?
Does our government intercede on our behalf? No way! Government
steadfastly argues in favor of its appropriateness. They did sponsor
NAFTA ... you know. Tons of our tax money went to Mexico as an outcome
of the deal. Think again ... chicanery, stratagem, or both?

Even if we wanted to be patriotic and buy American goods to regrow our
industrial base how can we, if most aren't made here any more. Try a
simple experiment. From the time you wake up in the morning and brush
your teeth, till you're ready to retire, write down where everything you
touch or go near is made. The countries of origin will speak volumes.
We, the consumers didn't want everything to be made over there. It was
our submissive government, bending to corporate will, that created
corporate welfare (tax advantages) and looked the other way, dismissing
our abhorrence to exploited labor competing with us.

There seems to be no end to suspicious, perplexing inconsistencies.
Why, when America attained phenomenal meteoric growth and dominance in
the production of goods for the world market, are we now imitating the
job market of third world economies? There are those who will have lots,
as the rest are relegated to limiting toil. Why, after becoming the
world's leading industrial power, are we importing so many of our daily
necessities and have become the world's biggest debtor? Why, when we
proclaim to be a utopia, do we lag far behind in education, health care,
crime prevention etc. ... of those we bombed into oblivion? Have the
custodians we entrusted to adhere to "our rational," including the
President, become one with a conspiracy? Are we entering a new age ...
"domestication of the work force"?

Too cynical a thought? Think! Look back! Only a generation past --
rewarding beliefs, rewarding application of rewarding employment,
usually resulted in rewarding achievement ... and a promising future.
Where have those attributes gone? What kind of future are we being led t
o?

Simply put, we have come to disbelief, disillusionment, disconnected
depression. This characterization is not portraying isolated pockets in
our society, nor is it the result of isolated intentions of those in
power. It couldn't be. it's too pervasive and therefore must be assumed
to have been orchestrated through coalition, and with hidden intent.

Our President has no compunctions of appearing on television and
announcing in emphatic terms, "our country has become a service society,
get used to it." It didn't just come to his attention, he must have been
in collusion with "power's agenda" for a long time.

The louder we cry out for our government to intervene -- to put the
brakes on what is happening -- to curtail corporate abuse of power ...
the more defensive and ridiculous become their antidotes.

A persistent ominous thought keeps surfacing. This recently
acknowledged, guardedly admitted to, "New World Order" -- is it a
prelude to strategies of "multi-national organizations" ... specifically
designed to divide a world they will eventually own?

The more I contemplate the connections in today's world, the more I
have to believe that corporate is bent on dominating it in their own
way. The more I contemplate the outcome, the more I believe an
"Orwellian" era is closing in on us.

Will machine supplant the mind of the masses? Is man destined to
become an organic appendage to the "Chip"?

When 350 of the world's richest people have more wealth than
3,000,000,000 of the world's population, anything is possible and many
things are becoming probable. When 350 are equal to 3,000,000,000, could
there be temptation? You bet!

How might ownership of the entire world be controlled and
administered? Not to worry, it's already under way. The tool is the
chip. "Chip." A godsend for some ... a curse for most.

[ Click here for chapter four ]