When was the last time you shopped at Wal-Mart? I don't know of any large retail chain that doesn't treat their employees exactly like Wal-Mart. I'd venture to say 90% of service jobs are soul sucking low paying hell holes. Even in the days of mom and pop stores most owners would pay their staff the bare minimum they could get away with. If you weren't part of the "family" you could expect to get treated like dirt.
The American public has bought into the non stop propaganda of their financial overseers and have sat by as unions nationwide have been emasculated and eviscerated. No, they were never a panacea, but they were the only counterbalance we ever had- and they're needed more than ever...
With the lose of a tremendous number of manufacturing jobs in the US and Canada to China and the subsequent good pay that went along with them, the unions died with them. Manufacturing jobs have been replaced by low paying non union services jobs. Since a large segment of the buying public are not getting paid peanuts there would have to be a quantum shift in the economic landscape of North America to afford the effects of union wages. If say Wal-Mart unionizes and they get better pay and benefits, the price of goods bought by the very same people will rise to offset the extra overhead. Zero sum gain in the long run. I don't have the answers, I'm not smart enough to figure out the path we need to take so the average working class family can lead a comfortable, safe, and healthy life.
I don't have all the answers either, but it can be done (see below), if Walmart, the fast food industries, et al... were a 'bit' more forthcoming and- a lot less greedy.
On any given day one go to the Golden Gate Bridge and see boatload upon boatload of our jobs coming back to us stacked high on container ships. Somehow it seemed to work before when CEO salaries weren't astronomically obscene and profits were brought back into our economy instead of being stashed offshore. Perhaps that's a bit simplistic- but it would be one helluva start!
We're buggered Stan. Maybe our kids too. I hope and pray the workers rise up against the greedy 1% and take their country back. Gee almost sounds socialist, but that's not what I'm advocating. Just fairness and equity. When people have had enough and quit getting sucked in by the media advertising telling them they need more and more JUNK then maybe they can save enough money so they won't be slaves to low paying jobs. If they had 6 months of wages in the bank they could afford to tell companies like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds and all they other scum to pound salt and walk out the door. In some South American countries the workers took over the factories and made a go of it when the owners wanted them to work cheaper and cheaper. At the end of all the workers concessions the owners just said they would close the factories and send the jobs to China. Some of these worker run factories failed, but some succeeded. Like the Black Panthers said, Power to the People! We need Economic Panthers. People have to quite looking for everyone else to secure their future. Take charge. Take over. Move ahead. The first strategic move would be to become a cash society. No more credit cards, bank loans and bogus savings accounts. Cash in the mattress. Take control away from the banks and the 1% who pull the strings. Radical yes. Possible yes. Likely, no. People are weak and don't want to take risks. The 1 percenter's have beaten their self confidence right out of them. They have also sold them on a lifestyle that is completely unrealistic and unnecessary. We are the donkeys, they hold the carrot that is always almost in reach but never attainable.
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When was the last time you shopped at Wal-Mart? I don't know of any large retail chain that doesn't treat their employees exactly like Wal-Mart. I'd venture to say 90% of service jobs are soul sucking low paying hell holes. Even in the days of mom and pop stores most owners would pay their staff the bare minimum they could get away with. If you weren't part of the "family" you could expect to get treated like dirt.
The American public has bought into the non stop propaganda of their financial overseers and have sat by as unions nationwide have been emasculated and eviscerated. No, they were never a panacea, but they were the only counterbalance we ever had- and they're needed more than ever...
With the lose of a tremendous number of manufacturing jobs in the US and Canada to China and the subsequent good pay that went along with them, the unions died with them. Manufacturing jobs have been replaced by low paying non union services jobs. Since a large segment of the buying public are not getting paid peanuts there would have to be a quantum shift in the economic landscape of North America to afford the effects of union wages. If say Wal-Mart unionizes and they get better pay and benefits, the price of goods bought by the very same people will rise to offset the extra overhead. Zero sum gain in the long run. I don't have the answers, I'm not smart enough to figure out the path we need to take so the average working class family can lead a comfortable, safe, and healthy life.
I don't have all the answers either, but it can be done (see below), if Walmart, the fast food industries, et al... were a 'bit' more forthcoming and- a lot less greedy.
On any given day one go to the Golden Gate Bridge and see boatload upon boatload of our jobs coming back to us stacked high on container ships. Somehow it seemed to work before when CEO salaries weren't astronomically obscene and profits were brought back into our economy instead of being stashed offshore. Perhaps that's a bit simplistic- but it would be one helluva start!
http://www.demos.org/publication/higher-wage-possible
We're buggered Stan. Maybe our kids too. I hope and pray the workers rise up against the greedy 1% and take their country back. Gee almost sounds socialist, but that's not what I'm advocating. Just fairness and equity. When people have had enough and quit getting sucked in by the media advertising telling them they need more and more JUNK then maybe they can save enough money so they won't be slaves to low paying jobs. If they had 6 months of wages in the bank they could afford to tell companies like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds and all they other scum to pound salt and walk out the door. In some South American countries the workers took over the factories and made a go of it when the owners wanted them to work cheaper and cheaper. At the end of all the workers concessions the owners just said they would close the factories and send the jobs to China. Some of these worker run factories failed, but some succeeded. Like the Black Panthers said, Power to the People! We need Economic Panthers. People have to quite looking for everyone else to secure their future. Take charge. Take over. Move ahead. The first strategic move would be to become a cash society. No more credit cards, bank loans and bogus savings accounts. Cash in the mattress. Take control away from the banks and the 1% who pull the strings. Radical yes. Possible yes. Likely, no. People are weak and don't want to take risks. The 1 percenter's have beaten their self confidence right out of them. They have also sold them on a lifestyle that is completely unrealistic and unnecessary. We are the donkeys, they hold the carrot that is always almost in reach but never attainable.
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