Forum Post: Now is the Time to Unionize "I do better, when WE do better!"
Posted 4 years ago on July 1, 2020, 11:57 a.m. EST by elf3
(4203)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Now is the time to begin massive unionization of all our workforces and fortune 500 companies. When companies are unionized ALL jobs are more secure. At a time when corporations share less of their profits with their employees than ever - and corporations pay less tax than ever we must DEMAND a fair wage for TODAY's economy. Not the economy from 20 years ago. AS costs of housing and bills rise Americans can no longer afford the cost of living. Corporations operating in the US have a MORAL obligation to pay workers a reasonable and functioning wage to meet TODAY's cost of living. We are getting attacked at all fronts. if our QUALITY of life was measurable - what would that show?
Landlorization and corporatization of our housing meets higher than ever costs for basics like phone and cable. What did phone service costs the boomers and how much was a wall phone to purchase? NOT ONLY THIS but Corporate WELFARE continues to RISE. They stick their hands into the American taxpayer coffer at every chance. They are robbing their own workers when they do this on top of their miserable wages and benefits. They use that money to lobby against those very same workers. America sent Trump to "DRAIN THAT SWAMP" and all he did was fill it up and reinforce it. While they sit there happy to see average Americans divided and at war with each other the situation continues to worsen. Workers are being PILLAGED. America is being pillaged. And it's time we stop fighting to band together and fix this faulty system.
The argument is "Why should someone get paid 30 bucks to flip burgers?" The answer is because companies can easily afford that. That money then goes back into the economy which trickles UP and creates even more jobs. Aside from this if your employer knows you have options and alternatives then they too must increase your portion of the company profits. The COMPANY - YOU help them build. The company that can't exist without your service YOU provide them. So if they don't want to share - then hey you have the option to go elsewhere. This is the right thing for ALL of us. Workers are consumers. Workers make it possible for companies to exist and as such deserve to have a wage that allows a comfortable lifestyle. THAT was the entire basis of the American Dream and what kept us from turning into a third world "shit-hole" DECENT- MORAL Wages allowed Americans to have a COMFORTABLE and "LAZY" lifestyle compared to the rest of the world. That's right our LAZINESS made us great not this forced overtime MORE productive insanity. Time to swim in the pool, have hobbies, and play in the yard with the kids and BBQ sets or polish the shiny new car. American morality was based on the unionization of labor and a fair economy that enabled MOST people the option to live decently. The one percent system we have now is a FAILED experiment. Trickle down libertarianism has failed us.
Bezos, Trump imagines it is the cream who rises to the top and finds the loopholes. I would argue there is far more potential out there than he can envision - and it's being killed by those with his mindset. How much of it has already been destroyed. This can't be measured and yet I know it to be true. I do not see it as the Cream who is rising to the top - it is the destroyers: The destroyers of compassion, progress, imagination, human uniqueness and our true potential. We must cultivate this once more to make this country what it can be.
Not only are unions an equalizer - they are a ladder to progress for the whole of humankind.
I do better when YOU have a union wage. My employer doesn't want to lose me to a better paying AVAILABLE jobs. He increases my wage and benefits, or seeks to make the job more enjoyable. He becomes more accommodating to life situations (like a sick child - or a school play - and all those types of FAMILY VALUES issues). And if those other jobs are offering a pension - than hey now he may have to also. And you know maybe he can't afford that super mansion or yacht he had is eye on now - mabye he has to reign in his luxury spending - but it's still more than well worth it when you consider how well he does in spite of those extra luxury amenities. Besides he can't take those things with him when he goes. BUT he can improve the lives of many others, and their children - he may even help cultivate the next Mozart, Doctor who cures cancer, or things we haven't imagined yet. The human imagination and potential doesn't exist only in the offspring of the wealthy - it could be inside of anyone. Right now it's being oppressed. All that potential may wither. Bezos, Trump imagines it is the cream who rises to the top and finds the loopholes. I would argue there is far more potential out there than he can envision - and it's being killed by those with his mindset. How much of it has already been destroyed. This can't be measured and yet I know it to be true. I do not see it as the Cream who is rising to the top - it is the destroyers: The destroyers of compassion, progress, imagination, human uniqueness and our true potential. We must cultivate this potential once more to make this country what it can be.
And that's right I said $30.00 pay for fortune 500 workers. They can EASILY afford it. It's fair - it is right. AND this is the average wage of a union worker. Fifteen is far from enough. Unite, Unionize, Live a good life! While small business owners fear the competition - what I would say is you will make up for it in shoppers. It's up to small business to demand ownership of their buildings. Getting the landlords out of monopolizing property which strains and constrains them - on the local levels and nationally. There is no reason that ordinances can't be made to limit mega-corps from owning too much property in small towns (or in cities). Why can we not limit this incredible problem? Just because something is already been going on does not mean we can't CHANGE it. It's wrong for large companies to own large swaths of properties in small towns. In some cases and mostly they belong to multi-national conglomerates collecting rent on our populous. The real trouble for you is not your workers. Think bigger.
A better world is out there - and it's not on the moon. I want to see my neighbors happy and doing well. I don't want to be in the largest home on the hill looking down at others struggling. But that is exactly what today's EPSTENIAN minded CEO's seem to want. It's a grotesque mutilation of Capitalism and the American Dream.
Bezos has so much money the only think he can think of to do next is fly his little rocket to the moon? What kind of moral deficit and entitlement is this? We have starving people here on earth. You have his workers who build this company struggling to have a work life balance and make ends meet. Amazon pays zero tax. If you want to own and operate a fortune 500 company in America then the definition of BOSS needs to change. Workers provide you the opportunity to build something - they provide you a service. If Bezos and his ilk can't look at it as anything other than a master/ slave relationship then I'm afraid their opportunity should be as limited as possible so as not to afflict the world with this savagery and small minded thinking. A better world is out there - and it's not on the moon. I want to see my neighbors happy and doing well. I don't want to be in the largest home on the hill looking down at others struggling. But that is exactly what today's EPSTENIAN minded CEO's seem to want. It's a grotesque mutilation of Capitalism and the American Dream.
Where is the GRATITUDE to the workers whose very hands and backs build and enable your comfort and success? As well as the comfort and success of shareholders. Especially when today's workers have zero share in this comfort.
This is destroying human potential - how much - can't be measured. The loss is unfathomable. Not just here but around the world as this new accepted mindset goes global. This is not normal. It is immoral and destructive. Each human life has value and potential beyond measure. Each mind is so very intricate and complex and so valuable. How we could ever lock it up in the ways we are doing is just so utterly shameful. We must water these minds, and grow them to their fullest potential here and all around the world from childhood and into adulthood. We must lay a cultivated ground so the best opportunities exist for them to bloom. And we must wrip out the weeds like Bezos who threaten to destroy this garden. (With what amounts to an online shopping mall). That's right it's a technological mall. OOH... AHH.
Modern day slavery isn't as visible as it once was and as it is in countries like China. It's far more insidious and lives under the radar. And yet we can see it exists. We see it in the one percent. We see it when we look at the data that shows less than five percent of people own ALL of the world's wealth. We can see it when we see poverty and food banks and a lack of health care in the midst of such wealth and profits. We can see it when we walk down a city sidewalk or subway as we step past the homeless. We can see it when a CEO refuses to treat his workers with basic dignity and fair wages compared to his own salary and would rather fly to the moon - than share his wealth with them. Today's slavery is all around us. We just can't see it.
And there is still a chance to turn it around. It is never too late to realize you have gone down a bad or short-sighted road and want to change. I think it is always right to offer people a second chance to do the right thing. Bezos can still turn his life around. The question is - how does he want to be remembered in the course of human history? A stingy slave master who destroyed all this human potential in favor of his own ego? Or someone who lead the charge to change how we value human labor/ life? Perhaps he himself could pave the way for a renewal of unions and the American Dream as a true leader of something more than (mall) profits?
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