I like to blame the greedy rich people, more exactly corporate fat cats for much of our economic struggles. They, in most cases are hugely overpaid, and get huge bonuses even while they run the company into the ground. Then if they do get the axe, they are given millions of dollars to leave. I was laid off last fall, and I didn't get 10 times my annual salary to leave. Although if they would have offered it, I would have taken it. After all I have a streak of greed in me just like any of us do.
The Boards of these companies pay these huge salaries and bonuses because they expect the CEO to make them hundreds of times what they pay a CEO. Do they care if they are providing jobs and lively hoods to thousands of people? It doesn't seem they do. They move their company oversees to get cheaper labor and maintain profits. They say they have to do this to save as many jobs as they can. Which I'm guessing they are referring to theirs, and their fat cat buddies. Because soon the only thing left in the U.S., is the headquarters, with maybe a few hundred jobs. The other thousands? Well we're sorry we had to save the company.
The message here is, we are all expendable for the sake of the company.
The unions in this country gained huge popularity in big part because companies were treating labor as commodity, to be used up and tossed. The idea was that we should take what we get, and keep our mouth shut or hit the road; there are a lot of people who want your job. They were probable right with this statement, that's why unions came in and organized labor. We all know there's power in numbers.
I could rag on these guys all day, but the truth is, we all have that tendency toward greed if given the opportunity. We will grab as much as we can, even if its more then we need.
Do I need a $25,000 car, a big screen HD TV, a $5000 dollar hot tub, probably not.
I don't begrudge people who have these things, or want these things, I'm just saying that we are all a little greedy. It's when we barrow money we can't pay back, to buy things we don't need, that it is greed out of control. Greed that screws others over, none of us should participate in that, no matter how tempting.
Greed it can make the world go around, or it can make it fall down.
You know when i began reading your entry i was right there with you. I agree corporate america needs to pull their heads out of the clouds. But by the time i got to the end i wasn't in agreement. Ok so here is my short argument, should the working class American be able to have goals and dreams of having money and nice thing to enjoy life with. This is what America was once about wasn't it? if you cant have nice things why work? we can all live off the welfare system. I don,t know the correct term but i think its called socialism. So to end with i do not think everyone is greedy just a few that give the country a bad wrap.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a medium between the enormous amount of stockpiling of assets and cash and the bettering of ones life. If we were lazy and had no goals that would not make for a happy prosperous nation but, on the flip side seeking to atain everything at any expence is also not a happy nation to make either. Corporations are at least partly to blame for the economic downfall because of their massive power and lack of regulation internally. When it comes to the law and profit, profit will always win and no one person will take blame because it is a corporation. This is only possible for the corporation because of us and us not using the tools given to us to keep theese entities in check. Hey Chuck if you dont want to feel to greedy I will buy your hot tub for fifty dollars. According to what my house is worth now this seems about fair. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that companies that we work for do believe that we are expendable, a dime a dozen, but I don't think we should just blame the big corporate guys for putting us in this economic struggle. I believe we all have our parts and pieces that have contributed throughout the years. I know it sucks, but we all have to take blame for our part and we all have to stand up together and make things better, not just a few select people, but the United States as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI guess I didn't make my point well. To have a desires and enjoy life there's nothing wrong with that. My intent was to say that desire unbridled is a very dangerous thing.
ReplyDeleteLike, a taste of reality says, we are all responsible for our part in the situation we are in now. Some more so then others, but most of us played a part. Greed makes us use people and love things. We can all fall into this way of thinking if we're not careful.
Also I believe in capitalism. I don't think that like in socialism we should tax the crap out of people and give it to the lazy. We should have to work for what we get.
But if like corporate america if we take an attitude of, "it sucks to be you" towards those we could help then we have missed the boat on how we can turn this country around.
We can turn this country around but we but we will all have to make sacrifices that may be hard in light of how spoiled we've become in our its all about me society.
As Red, Of the Red Green shows says, "We're all in this together".
As a teacher, I feel as if I'm part of some sort of small minority who gets to do a job they truly love and simply make do with the relatively low pay. I wonder what this country would be like if we all worked as hard as teachers but got similar, adequate, but not excessive pay? For example, why do mechanics sometimes get $70 an hour, and ESL teachers with Master's degrees get $18 an hour? Is it because it's easier to tell when a car is not working correctly as opposed to when teaching methods aren't working well?
ReplyDeleteOr, are there just fewer people who can fix cars than those who can teach English?
I've gotten off track. My basic question is: do teachers actually produce anything? Are my students a "commodity?" Is knowledge a commodity? How do we measure success?