In an upcoming installment of his personal memoir, author Tom Fowler writes:
At the end of 1989 I lost my job. I was one month short of my 40th birthday and had spent 18 years in telecommunications. At the stroke of midnight on December 30th my career, at least for a time, was a thing of the past. On my last day in the office I and several others were given the morning to clean out our desks and company vehicles. As you would imagine the office that morning was a quiet, subdued, place. My supervisor, a very nice lady, spent our last hours weeping in her cubicle. We were in the strange position of comforting as we prepared for our final exit.
Very brutally I learned the hard way what modern corporations think of their employees. It is easy to desensenitive yourself to this if you are one of the fortunate ones to retain your position after a round of downsizing. The persons laid off disappear and unless you are personal friends with one or more of them they are not seen or heard from again. I have attended church and other social functions with many besides myself who have experienced employment separation and have noticed the tension in their faces as an uncertain future drags out day by day.
Brother Fowler is an eloquent and civilized man. I am not.
What he points out is that if some twit bean counter decides the corporation can make and extra buck and a half a year profit by cutting your ass adrift he won't even think twice about it. Your loyalty to your employer, while demanded, or at least expected, is not now, nor will ever be reciprocated. You aren't on a team. The board of directors and the major shareholders are the team. You are a bolt, a wrench, a pair of pliers. Once they find a cheaper tool you are done.
America becomes the most frightening place in the world if you are 40 something and suddenly out of work. There aren't any golden parachutes for the 99 percent. Everything you own and have saved for is suddenly at risk. You have no medical insurance. You are drowning and life rafts are rare.
Enter Mitt Romney and his pal Edward Conrad. Conrad was at Bain Capital. Bain of course is Mitt's old stomping ground. Conrad has written a soon to be published book saying that the United States of America needs more economic inequality rather than less. His theory is that if the super rich can be made even richer it will trickle down to we peons and everyone will be happy. He is the alpha male taking care of the pack. He deserves the biggest portion of the kill. Mitt won't admit it, but you know this is exactly what he believes. You don't run a place like Bain Capital and not think that way.
This sort of economic Darwinism drives the republican party establishment. The middle class deserves to pay more taxes than the one percent, because the one percent are the providers. Well, unless they are downsizing. Then, screw you.
There are people I know who ask me why I trust the government so. I don't know that I necessarily trust the government. However I do know, without a doubt, I don't trust the cretins who run corporations and outfits like Bain Capital. They are sociopathic and narcissistic slugs. They care for nothing but their own well being and certainly don't mind high body counts if that is what it takes to achieve their goals.
The bottom line is that a bureaucracy, no matter how unwieldy and bloated, exists to solve a problem.The corporation is there to make a profit no matter who, or how many they have to mug to do so. Given the two options I'll take the former over the latter every day of the week.
5-7-12
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