Forum Post: War on Workers Continues Unabated and the Domino which will Bankrupt WS
Posted 6 years ago on Aug. 18, 2018, 8:53 a.m. EST by elf3
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Should you care about this? WS...skip to the end we know empathy isn't a concern for you. But the domino should and will.
No money for college we set out into the world during the housing boom, i was 11-12 bucks an hour, he was digging trenches for 15, rent was 1200 per month... multiple wage freezes and layoffs during the Bush years with impossible outrageous rents and labor degredation and mass outsourcing (which was blamed on 9/11?). After the crash of 08 we lost our jobs. Tradesman and secretary. Hundreds of resumes and 30 interviews later... A brief stint in an abusive car dealership (walking distance because our cars kept breaking down) they stole his wages and commissions and I was treated like an object and degraded and subjected to unprofessional yelling all day, followed by a back office stint in a nursing home system for greedy muthers, which froze wages and was involved in severe elder abuse, followed by a door to door abusive Comcast gig which never actually paid and stole labor, followed by a job with an abusive supervisor pissed her daughter didnt get the job and six jobs rolled into one and a crazy owner's wife who threw her coat in my face and ordered me around like I was a prostitute trying to steal her much older and unattractive owner husband. Then fortunately a brief union delivery job which stabilized our lives. Followed by CURRENT massive Union Busting, 70 hour abusive weeks, and efforts to destroy wages, encourage attrition, and replace workers with subcontracted low wage workers... and Stress Management Stanford Prison Experiment conditions...which is driving us both to the edge. We decided not to have kids given our quality of life and instability we feel bad for those who do. We never fit in a wedding, we gave up on school, too much income ha for any aid and too poor for loans, also too expensive and no time even if we did. Our goals and dreams are on hold and subject to an economy beyond our control. My wage is now 11 an hour...(BA given preference if you want to change jobs for the same wage and no benefits). Rents are $2000 and rising...everything costs more. He is in the process of a "restructuring". So here we go again. How long can we keep this up? Meanwhile CEO makes 7000 an hour.
We are the 99. We are not alone or unique.
Who cares about us? Congress with their healthcare, fat pensions, corporate backing, and gated mansions which we pay for? The revolution is coming, our anger is bottled ...for now, how long til there is nothing left to lose? But we don't have to do a thing. Because there is a silver rope...and ws is going to hang themselves.
SO why should WallStreet and Congress care. Well here is the fun little part. If you drown us...you are coming with us. Here is why cut and dry...easy and obvious for anyone to see even working shmoes like us:
The DOMINO: following the housing boom corporations and small business, doctors, lawyers, (and also probably EVERY Congressional whore) and would be employers decided to divest funds from hiring into renting out property instead. It was SO lucrative to do so. The government subsidized people to live in them at high market rates demonizing rent control as well as providing a low capital gains tax on these investment properties. Every business man and his uncle ( not too mention spoiled offspring) got in on it... if he was smart got in on it. More renters than ever, more government money to feed on being poured into it like candy. Gentrifying neighborhoods chomping up cheap housing likesharks to rent out at inflated prices and all that rental gold rush. All that cheap housing on the market after forclosing...that flowing avalanche of rental income. No brainer for those with the means...well:
With offshored tax shelters, fewer jobs and stagnated wages outsourcing and the rental market boom replacing employing businesses ...the people holding up the economy are the secretaries and truck drivers. We are the largest workforce left. Especially union workers with actual wages.
SO...When that domino gets pulled out Wall Street you MORONS...lose the people like truck drivers and union workers the largest employment sector left who are subsidizing your rents and tennants aka your BIGGEST INVESTMENTS holding up your own personal finances (even said CEO)...and your properties go underwater you go bankrupt America turns into a shithole...and massive job loss homelessness and noone to consume products, businesses close their doors even WS. Stupid is as Stupid does. Basic common sense. Have fun.
WSJ keep encouraging your own demise in your war on workers, unions and truckers. Hang yourself with your own rope. Your rental properties are fools gold when noone is left to help subsidize the rents.
You didn't think Uber wages are going to hold up this economy and your yachts ?
Got to find a place with a union. On the bus other day driver encouraging one youth to look into that, with full beanies, penison, and 32 an hour drivin a bus, which is more than many basic college grads start with.
I feel your pain.
Since the time the Hebrew commodities broker, Joseph in Egypt, enslaved his estranged tribe with debt, it's always been about the 1% living large off the labor of the 99%. Capitalism is no less a threat to life than most of Earth's human civilizations since the beginning of known history. It will never change until we eliminate the parasitic vermin from the gene pool. That doesn't mean physical violence. It can be done by violent taxation and communitization of property beyond what individual economic units need to sustain life comfortably.
I will be the arbiter of comfortably.
With the new " great labor shortage" ( ok sure phht) we face as baby boomers retire and collect their rental incomes...you would think wages might rise, companies might start recruiting all us broke female secretaries and cashiers ...? ( secretary, cashier, nurses still the top female jobs) Nope skip to insourcing men at cheaper wages from third world countries. Because there isn't actually a labor shortage... but actually a desire to pay a living wage least of all - to women- shortage. Funny because we women tend to eat healthy, excersize, have book clubs, dexterity (um yoga, kale, juicing, craze we don't smoke) we are also perfectionists and introspective and constantly growing and adapting... as far as maternity ...hell most of us dont have kids anymore...but keep hiring drinking buddies killing brain cells who can't bend down to tie a shoe and require a shit ton of medical care. But no...don't try to mold business to accommodate or train us women by god...don't do that. Oh wait I see we live too long right we don't die before the pension comes. Oh and we possess empathy and may blow the whistle on the cracked up immoral and unethical shit you do.
On this Labor Day let's reflect on what little rights workers in America have. In particular, have a look at this list of mandatory time off by country. Big fat ZERO days for American workers.
Even the poorest nations require paid time off.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country
And that's perhaps the biggest issue of all. Americans that do get sick days or vacation are discouraged/pressured from using them. Americans who pay for health insurance don't get time off to actually use it. So we have calamity insurance. BUT if you get an illness like cancer the kicker is...you can take a unpaid leave and somehow you are supposed to pay for insurance and rent or mortgage...your cancer treatment is cancelled...(or you get to resplit your vaginal stitches coming back after labor - for the pregnant "folks") and well for the cancer "folks"...you slowly die. The company maintains your pension and perhaps even gets paid for the life insurance they are now allowed to have on you. It all works out great for them. But why are we as a people accepting this treatment. This martyr sacrificial tough guy mentality is all well for those who adopt and enjoy self- flagellation...but what does that do for families...what does it do for the other little guys? Is it really so valliant to not stand up for them by standing up for ourselves? It takes each of us to stand up as individuals and be that change because the more of us who do...our collective power increases. We are not the Stanford prisoners. We are patriots. We stand up for the underdog. That is the spirit of our nation. The spirit of our nation has never been to lay down and take it. We always fight against tyranny opression and outright bullies so...why aren't we now? Are we really letting some dushdick wallstreet rich boys belittle our self worth and own everyday of our short lives and steal time away from our families, or the sun on our faces, or take our labor with ever increasing demands and a life full of stress and hardship in return ? Where are we? Did we arrive on this rock from across this vast infinite universe to inhabit a body trapped in a cubicle or shithole job each and every day of our short existences? Is that our purpose? Really? For those sooo "lucky enough" who must be "so greatful" for those two weeks off imagine if everyone got just that why then - we'd have to give other workers even more since the scales and perspective would shift - so of course no we can't do this! What a sham/ joke!!!: Two weeks in the scheme of each year of the short years you have to live? And what does the CEO do? Travel the world...take months off at a stretch...have endless funds to enjoy them fully to take time off when sick or when a family member is sick or dying which we employees have enabled with our labor and don't get ...and this CEO can retire at any day of his choosing with his comfortable millions he has an instant escape/ reset button while we struggle like fish with hooks in our mouth gasping for air as they cut us up for their next meal. Does this seem fair?
Shithole Jobs?
Shithole Jobs - read elf's post above. Then start fighting back. Demand more. Don't accept shithole jobs! Know your worth as a human being.
"But why are we as a people accepting this treatment?" Therein lies the question, elf.
For me, there is nothing more important than time off from work - to be yourself, to create, to love, to explore nature and the wonderment of life.
Work is work and cannot and should not be the sum total of who we are as human beings.
Love your post, elf. Solidarity!
I agree we are worth so much more. The answer to me is quite clear. Corporations and the narcissists running them have employed the psychology of gaslighting. For anyone who grew up with narcissistic parents...it is the exact same dynamic. When you begin to realize the relationship of codependency and narcissism it is being done on a mass scale.
Employers and corporations have become quite like an abusive husband or parent. A lot of forced dependency coupled with a slow degredation of self worth...we have been taught to (latest buzzword) "reframe" the abuse. As well as adapt to a new albeit unhealthy "normal". We are taught we are responsible for how others treat us...that their behaviours are justified by our own failure and helplessness to change it. Instead of calling them out we work harder to prove our worth...which does NOT ever work.The helpless feeling feeds the worthless feeling which feeds the abuse cycle. To an extent yes we are responsible for what we accept...but NOT for the abuse - abuse is never justified or our fault...it is merely our responsibility to end the abuse and not allow it to continue. But it isn't our job to change the abuser or to somehow change his mindset...it is only our job to call out abuse and call it what it is. The idea of "reframing" abuse and taking it on as our responsibility to adapt to it...is an extremely dangerous idea. One used in many cults, and other abusive dynamics and the foundation for Stockholm Syndrome.
Corporations coupled with government are abusing and taking advantage of the populous and what do we do? We work harder to prove our worth. This isnt working for us...they get our best and we get more abuse. It is our job to call it out and end it. We will never change the abuser or his mindset. We need to change what we are willing to allow. The first step is to realize this IS abuse.
And to all those "tough" guys who voted for Trump. I hate to be the one to tell you...you have stepped into the role of an abused wife. Somehow believing your abuser is doing his best to take care of you...while he quietly and invisibly pulls the rug out from under your feet so you fall down and he can PRETEND to rescue you. It is quite difficult conundrum for how do you end abuse when you are reliant on your abuser...when you have no place else to work and you need him to put money in your bank account and feed you. Thus the dilemma.
Sometimes he will let you succeed for a bit lulling you into a false sense of security before the next sabotage because rest assured the illusion of progress is his best weapon which allows him to distract and covertly destroy you. He does not want you to and will never actually create conditions for you to succeed... because then you can escape. His grandeur and power is built and reliant on the mouse in his cage.
Stockholm Syndrome is an outcome of abuse. I totally agree. The psychological campaign of abuse against the American people started several decades ago.
Ayn Rand and Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew) worked to help turn Americans into ultra-consumers. Don't forget Alan Greenspan was part of the Rand's inner circle.
The consumerism and psychological control over the masses has continued until today and what we see now, the Stockholm Syndrome, or people defending their abusers/oppressors, is an outcome of that.
the answer to the why question is almost always the same and was summed up best by a former candidate..."one set of policies for the donors and another set for the voters."
I tell people I work with about single payer health care, many of them do not know such a thing exist they are amazed when I tell them about the British system, if only we can convert that amazement into effective action at election time we might have a chance...
Enjoy Labor Day if you're lucky enough to get a paid day off. Otherwise you're working or you're going short of money this week.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/enjoy-labor-day-if-youre-lucky-enough-to-get-paid-holidays_us_5b8c1758e4b0162f4724ac68
I feel your pain too. I've come through some real difficult times myself but have family going through some stuff right now that you describe above almost exactly!
What the 1 percent are doing, and what this capitalist system is allowing them to do is UNSUSTAINABLE unless they want us all dead. Is this a genocide happening that we are barely noticing?
It is a genocide for the insects, birds and animals that have gone missing, become extinct.
The idea that there is money for a Space Force so that the rich can go run away to the galaxy when earth burns up, while there is never any money for things the people need like healthcare and affordable education is just simply outrageous.
The time is now.
but what to DO? What to do? Isn't that the question? If we join with the Democrats to defeat the GOP and create change people on the site won't like us, oh my
WHAT SHOULD WE DO!?!
Remember "the Bush years" were brought to you by Ralph Nader and the Greens....