Forum Post: No Country For Young Men

NO COUNTRY FOR YOUNG MEN

A Billion Times Seven

OK, so to anyone who read my hub on healthcare, I again assert the bold statement that I have little patience for ideologues. We all know there's plenty of folks who have something to say and say it. What wedon't have is plenty of folk who will back up what they say with absolute, verifiable fact. In a day and age where truth is arrived at by consensus without absolute, verifiable fact, I will not render my ears another listen or my eyes another word. It hinders knowledge. Here's a fact: In the last century, the human population of the Earth has grown by 6 or 7 times. If anyone can dispute this, please, by all means, do so. If you do not dispute this, then it stands to reason that the Earth's life-sustaining resources are being taxed by 6 or 7 times more. In the halls of power, there is no serious consensus of concern for this. Oh, dear, what could the matter be? Well, you see, in the halls of power, real power, the real concern is how to make money off these waning resources. But as I see the corporate captains of energy, water and agricultural companies in the media giving us their pitches, I see the bigger problem.. I see the core of the problem; changes, particularly technological changes have increased even more dramatically than the population. Civilization has not kept up, not used these new technologies wisely and, ever so much more importantly, has not evolved. At times, it would most definitely seem that we are even moving backwards. Global markets look more like a new version of 19th century slave labor and the Industrial Revolution.

For Better Or Worse??

Now to those nasty little, er...BIG, corporations:

How did regulations and employment laws come about? I hope someone knows! Abuse of labor, defrauding the public, ruining millions oflives to enrich the fortunes of a few. What are regulations? Regulations are laws for the collective. Why do so many conservatives have a problem with regulations? Do they want to be lawless? What about people, then? How about no laws for them either? What is a company? It is a group of people. So, how can they be infallible. How can they not have rules of conduct in harmony with the whole?

OK! I'll get right to the point now! Living in a very political state, as I do, I was asked if I believe in term limits. I do,..to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. In fact, I believe in TERM LIMITS FOR EVERY OCCUPATION. Employment is a big problem today. Making ends meet, leading productive lives, fulfilling goals and dreams has never been as tough as I've seen in my lifetime. Yet, look at your senators and congressmen and women, and CEOs and middle managers and ... These people have great accumulated wealth. Their goals are aligned at preserving and enhancing that wealth. When you give a baby 12 pieces of candy and all the others 1, the others will eat their piece of candy and all look at the one who has 12. The one who has 12 will eat all his candy and then look at the others for the one not eaten. I made a case to a friend in support of progressive taxation in light of our grave financial crisis. The resources needed cost more and more. The resources coming in are now a lot less because tax rates have fallen to being relatively equal across the board. "So why isn't that fair?" my friend asked. I stated that in a perfect world, it would be. Was there ever a perfect world? Being a civilized people means putting systems in place that protect us from our own human nature. Otherwise, we see the same bad circumstances happening over and over. Wouldn't you want to witness your life in progression? All the broken records are disheartening

On CBS's 6t0 minutes program, there was an interview with the CEO of GE, who was named by Obama as "Job Czar." The interview was conducted by Leslie Stahl. Leslie asked him about outsourcing American jobs. After talking about thousands of jobs in China and Brazil, he announced the good news that GE would build a new plaint in New York and it would create 400 jobs. Leslie asked him about pay. "Good pay! About $15/hr." Is anyone making a good living on 24k in New York? If you are then I'd like to hear from you. Out of touch? Interested in the short term? Interested only in profits? Yes to all.

On, Bill Maher's "Real Time," Bill asked GM's CEO, "Are you a socialist?" "No." "Are you against big government?" "Yes" " "Are you an Obama man?" "No." "A conservative," "Yes." "But you took a bailout from the Obama Administration?" "That's different" "But, how is it different for any other country or people?" Pause................Polite, Bill moved on..."Do you believe in Global Climate Change?" "No" Concerned for his collective self. Society? Civilization? The Future? Remember, there was a time the Senate voted on term limits. They voted against it. Remember? Then, they gave themselves a raise because it's hard work to vote for yourself. I was young then. I joked at what a joke that was and I got,"You just have to worry about yourself."

As an addendum to this: Don't let people off the hook with "that's different." The reason that's different is because they are important and YOU ARE NOT. Bill, letting the guy off was a big mistake. I say give them a mirror and ask the question again.

The last corporate job I was in was a careful character study. Projects that you worked on with other people got done after several months of collective work and were abandoned. Things that they said were finished came back and worked on again. History or documentation on anything was either decades old or non-existent. Any help they gave was detrimental or a waste of time. Departments disappeared and then were needed again. And all along several, an inordinate number, dozens within a year, upstarts came and went. I saw some rather bright young people get made fools of. Talent wasn't necessary. They were just temporary, though they didn't know it. Some left out of frustration. Some were fired. Some were chased out. Some they trumped up things to accuse them of. Who is they? Whatever title you can bestow upon a lifer that puts them in a managerial or supervisory position.. Yes-thesemiddle managers, I'd say 95%, had 30P+ years in. The rest had several years in, enough to be trusted. Every manager had a mini-manager under them so they never, I do mean never, had to deal with their staff. Several more of their tactics would take up a book. Something that should have taken 5 years was never completed. In 12 years plus, and with several highly-paid friends, I meanconsultants, was never finished and abandoned. Yes, if there was one thing these people were good at, and I mean really good, it was preserving their jobs. You never knew what went on in any meeting, they knew how to create scapegoats and pit people against one another. Their victims were always put down and insulted when they weren't there to defend themselves. I'm actually surprised I lasted as long as I did. Oh, I was more than wise to what was going on. It just was not a healthy environment at all.

I AM A BETTING MAN

There needs to be a changing of the guard. Folks need to prosper when it's their time and when their time is over, then it's a new generation's turn. That amount of time should be 20-30 years. I'd bet my heart that a whole lotta ills would either be diminished or gone completely. That's not say you can't work somewhere else. That's not to say you can't put in another 20 and another. Condemn these "occupiers" if you want. They are frustrated. They want to work. At least they are doing what they believe in. Let these nasty life-rs learn what a struggle it is to start over and over and again. But, look over yonder. I see an empty hen house. That's what happens when you leave the fox in charge.

I am not a spring chicken myself but, I can could name names until I'm blue in the face of the number of people that I still see in jobs since I was a kid growing up. It all has to do with selfishness. I say call them out. Tell them what they are...or let the generational failures continue.