But nice doesn't cut it. If we want control of our workplace and our jobs, relying on nice bosses to be nice to us is going to disappoint...
Did you ever sit down with your employees, show them the budget, lay out how much they were making, how much you were making, expected revenues, etc?
Probably not.
For a small company, professional organizations are probably not appropriate, but in medium and large sized companies, if the workers were organized, we could start demanding information from management, and negotiating our cut.
Without an organization, we are at the mercy of "nice" bosses, and they are pretty rare.
Actually, fraud, shredding documents, and bribery are all illegal, last I checked. I'm not saying that the management of divine did anything illegal, although it does sound immoral.
And let's face it - most of the corporations in this country live off of the government. Regardless of all the rhetoric of the "free market" in the USA we have a highly subsidized high-tech industry, financial industry, and agricultural industry.
The huge defense budgets are loaded with pork for the handful of politically connected defense contractors. How much research that lead to the internet was on the taxpayer's dime, or from government protected monopolies?
And let's not even go into limited liability for shareholders - if a company profits, they get the profits. If a company goes bankrupt, the owners are not liable, the creditors lose their money.
Of course, more than likely, if the company is big enough or important enough, they will be bailed out, again by taxpayers. Remember the "Mexico" bailout (i.e., US banks got bailed out). The second "Mexico" bailout? The third "Mexico" bailout? The S&L bailout? The Crysler bailout? Long Term Capital Management? Steel tariffs? The airlines? Hell, my tax money is still going to McDonald's to advertize their "food" overseas. The bailouts and subsidies to US companies in my lifetime are counted in the trillions of dollars.
Face it, "free market capitalist" economies only exist in textbooks and libertarian screeds. The real world has never operated that way, and never will.
Read the newspaper lately? CEOs and directors have been lying, cheating, and stealing from public companies for years. The open corruption and bribery in all levels of government (by these same companies) is impossible to ignore (well, if you try really hard).
After September 11, the management of the airlines got bailouts while the workers got laid off.
About 6% of people actively seeking jobs can't get one, and this is called a "recovery"?
I mean, this is from an American perspective, to Americans, but I'm sure it's not that different elsewhere.
Really, when will Americans grow a spine and start putting these people in jail?
I wonder if the CEO of divine is going to give back his bonus?
Duh, nevermind, there's a rerun of Three's Company on tv...
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I keep on reading comments saying that the US government is trying to prevent a terrorist attack.
Can anyone back up this claim?
Great, you sound like a nice guy.
But nice doesn't cut it. If we want control of our workplace and our jobs, relying on nice bosses to be nice to us is going to disappoint...
Did you ever sit down with your employees, show them the budget, lay out how much they were making, how much you were making, expected revenues, etc?
Probably not.
For a small company, professional organizations are probably not appropriate, but in medium and large sized companies, if the workers were organized, we could start demanding information from management, and negotiating our cut.
Without an organization, we are at the mercy of "nice" bosses, and they are pretty rare.
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A Union? Let's see...
1. The union movement was started in the USA, by Americans.
2. Unions are based on the idea of democracy and one-person, one-vote.
3. In communist countries like the U.S.S.R and China, independent labor unions were/are illegal.
Obviously, unions are communist!
-----
Actually, fraud, shredding documents, and bribery are all illegal, last I checked. I'm not saying that the management of divine did anything illegal, although it does sound immoral.
And let's face it - most of the corporations in this country live off of the government. Regardless of all the rhetoric of the "free market" in the USA we have a highly subsidized high-tech industry, financial industry, and agricultural industry.
The huge defense budgets are loaded with pork for the handful of politically connected defense contractors. How much research that lead to the internet was on the taxpayer's dime, or from government protected monopolies?
And let's not even go into limited liability for shareholders - if a company profits, they get the profits. If a company goes bankrupt, the owners are not liable, the creditors lose their money.
Of course, more than likely, if the company is big enough or important enough, they will be bailed out, again by taxpayers. Remember the "Mexico" bailout (i.e., US banks got bailed out). The second "Mexico" bailout? The third "Mexico" bailout? The S&L bailout? The Crysler bailout? Long Term Capital Management? Steel tariffs? The airlines? Hell, my tax money is still going to McDonald's to advertize their "food" overseas. The bailouts and subsidies to US companies in my lifetime are counted in the trillions of dollars.
Face it, "free market capitalist" economies only exist in textbooks and libertarian screeds. The real world has never operated that way, and never will.
-----
Read the newspaper lately? CEOs and directors have been lying, cheating, and stealing from public companies for years. The open corruption and bribery in all levels of government (by these same companies) is impossible to ignore (well, if you try really hard). After September 11, the management of the airlines got bailouts while the workers got laid off. About 6% of people actively seeking jobs can't get one, and this is called a "recovery"? I mean, this is from an American perspective, to Americans, but I'm sure it's not that different elsewhere. Really, when will Americans grow a spine and start putting these people in jail? I wonder if the CEO of divine is going to give back his bonus? Duh, nevermind, there's a rerun of Three's Company on tv...