- Jul 26, 2002
- 11,757
- 0
- 71
Something has been eating the hell out of me the last couple of months. I've attempted to have conversations with people in real life about it, but most people think I'm joking or think there is nothing they can do about it. Perhaps some just think I'm wrong. But I've never really had a good intelligent conversation about this.
Now I will warn you, my feelings span across several topics that are all interrelated, so I may seem unorganized and jump around a bit. Try to bare with me.
I absolutely DESPISE our American culture and it's outlook on the relationship between citizens and work. First of all, I think it is ridiculous that a good portion of Americans work more than 40 hours a week. It has been proven time and again over the last 150 years that employees who work more than 40 hours a week give diminishing returns and sustained workloads of over 40 hours will actually lower total output than just having a base 40 hour week. I read a very interesting article about how our culture moved away from a 40 hour work week. In a nutshell, back in the 70's in silicon valley a lot of 'geeks' who were borderline Asperger sufferers but were brilliant in technology, revolutionized Silicon Valley. Due to their unique personality, they did not suffer ill effects from working more than 40 hours. As a result, certain companies flourished and that line of thinking spread to other industries, despite research that shows it is simply not an effective way of managing most employees. I think the other facet that encouraged more than 40 hour work weeks is that upper management simply wanted to get more from their employees for the same money. The sacred bottom line became more and more important.
Back 40 years ago, this wasn't an issue. If you had a shitty employer who cared more about making a huge profit than treating employees properly, you simply got another job. In today's world, it's not that simple. First of all, you have way more MASSIVE corporations than we have ever had. That is indisputable. Secondly, the wealth is becoming increasingly hoarded by the leaders of these giant corporations. There isn't a huge initiative to treat workers properly anymore, because workers simply don't have the options to go some place better.
Let me use a very basic example to make my point. Grocery stores. Back in the day most grocery stores were family owned, local places. The owner worked in the store, made a good living and employed people from the community. He probably cared about his employees, as well as his customers. His employees weren't rich, but I'm sure many of them earned a decent enough living. If you were a shitty owner of a grocery store, your good employees would find a better employer and you would have a hard time getting a good employee, which would affect your bottom line. Employers had the choice to leave and had options. The power was with the general public, not with the business owners, so you had better be a good person, decent member of the community and treat everyone fairly.
Today, most grocery stores are huge chains. The 'owners' of these huge chains are disgustingly wealthy. The executive management of these huge chains make an ungodly amount of money too. Now I am not discounting the work they do. They certainly deserve to be paid well and they have a very important job. However, I do feel that they are paid WAAAAY to much, while the average worked is paid waaay to little. There work isn't THAT important. They aren't curing cancer. They aren't solving an energy crisis. They aren't helping make our education system better. Hell, they aren't really doing anything special outside of making a corporation a hell of a lot of money. Now all the employees of these chain stores aren't anything special either. They are just average people, high school students, mom's and retired guys. They all are just trying to earn a living. They deal with a lot of shit though. And let's be honest, they get paid nothing, relatively speaking. What choices do they have though? Let's assume they are average everyday people, no particular skills, not very intelligent and just trying to provide for themselves. It's extremely difficult to start a business of their own, takes money to make money. They aren't going to go to college. Prices are ridiculous, they aren't extremely smart and it probably won't do them a great deal of good anyway. So what do they do? They work their ass off. They make it into management. They work 50-60 hours a week (or more) to make an ok living. As an entry level manager, they literally live to work and make 45k. They can survive. Good luck starting a family on that wage though. Even if they bust their ass and make it to mid level management, is the amount of hours and time away from their family (if they can afford one) worth it to make a decent living? Again, if they were doing something for the greater good of humanity, I could understand it, but all this hard work for what? To make some people at the top of the food chain even more money?! Come on! Life is to short for that shit.
But what other choice do they have? They don't really have any. And large businesses know this. You have to put up with the bullshit, cause you need a job. They don't have to pay fair wages anymore (relative to the income their businesses make) because the employers are so large and control so much. The employees are really at the mercy of large businesses. Government won't stand up for the average person, because they are run by large businesses as well. In short, the average person is fucked and has to roll with it.
Now let's look at some of the other negative aspects of this. First of all, most households in the U.S. both the fathers and mothers work. They have a couple of options if they go this route.
1. Work opposite hours, take turns watching the kids and have very little time for the next 30 years to see each other.
2. Struggle their ass off. One of them works two jobs, one part time, and again, the family structure is very poor.
3. Work 9-5's and pay for daycare. The kids don't have proper parental guidance. Lack of parental guidance causes all sorts of issues. Poor education. Children at younger ages in life. Drug use, crime, etc... Basically, parental guidance is EXTREMELY important. I think we can all agree on this, look at the stupid shit we all make fun of in society today.
4. Be bums and live off the government. Which is a valid option for a lot of people. But again, the family structure often times falters under this scenario. Scenarios 3-4 will feed each other and continually make things worse for future generations.
As a result, the average person becomes less capable of providing for themselves and we all become even MORE at the mercy of those in power and with money.
Now I have absolutely no problem with businesses turning a healthy profit. But I despise the 'more more more' attitude of the vast majority of our businesses. Wouldn't it be nice of the profits from a company got distributed amongst the employees of that company, rather than the executive board and shareholders?
Now I understand some of you are going to come at me with "these businesses create so many great things yatta yatta" and that these rich people create jobs, innovate etc...
I have no doubt that is true, to an extent. But I think that these jobs could still be created and innovation could still occur at roughly the same rate, even with profits being spread amongst the average person.
I look at banks as an absolutely perfect example. Credit Unions are typically non-profit, for the community type centers. The managers of these credit unions make a good living. The employees are typically treated fairly. The customers get great deals. Low fee's, better rates than large banks etc... They are basically better on almost every level for the entire country than a large bank. Yet they aren't appreciated by the average person. If we had many more small businesses and did more to force large businesses to care about the community first, employees second and bottom line a distant third, this whole country would be a hell of a lot better.
I have a lot more thoughts on the subject I'd like to delve into, but this should be sufficient to kick it off.
For what its worth, I always thought that the 99%'s had this sort of thought process in mind, even though I'm sure there are a ton of people who are riding the coat tails of the 99% with ulterior motives.
I am also a Republican, so I figured that'd throw some of you off. In a nutshell though, I think both parties are completely fucked up when it comes to this subject. I think our whole country needs a reality check. Why are we so damn focused on making profits for large businesses, rather than living good, comfortable, enjoyable lives with our families? The amount of money we have in this country and the technology we possess, the vast majority of Americans could work a 35 hour a week job, live a nice life and enjoy the hell out of it, if we all worked for the betterment of the country, rather than the bottom line of giants.
Discuss.
Now I will warn you, my feelings span across several topics that are all interrelated, so I may seem unorganized and jump around a bit. Try to bare with me.
I absolutely DESPISE our American culture and it's outlook on the relationship between citizens and work. First of all, I think it is ridiculous that a good portion of Americans work more than 40 hours a week. It has been proven time and again over the last 150 years that employees who work more than 40 hours a week give diminishing returns and sustained workloads of over 40 hours will actually lower total output than just having a base 40 hour week. I read a very interesting article about how our culture moved away from a 40 hour work week. In a nutshell, back in the 70's in silicon valley a lot of 'geeks' who were borderline Asperger sufferers but were brilliant in technology, revolutionized Silicon Valley. Due to their unique personality, they did not suffer ill effects from working more than 40 hours. As a result, certain companies flourished and that line of thinking spread to other industries, despite research that shows it is simply not an effective way of managing most employees. I think the other facet that encouraged more than 40 hour work weeks is that upper management simply wanted to get more from their employees for the same money. The sacred bottom line became more and more important.
Back 40 years ago, this wasn't an issue. If you had a shitty employer who cared more about making a huge profit than treating employees properly, you simply got another job. In today's world, it's not that simple. First of all, you have way more MASSIVE corporations than we have ever had. That is indisputable. Secondly, the wealth is becoming increasingly hoarded by the leaders of these giant corporations. There isn't a huge initiative to treat workers properly anymore, because workers simply don't have the options to go some place better.
Let me use a very basic example to make my point. Grocery stores. Back in the day most grocery stores were family owned, local places. The owner worked in the store, made a good living and employed people from the community. He probably cared about his employees, as well as his customers. His employees weren't rich, but I'm sure many of them earned a decent enough living. If you were a shitty owner of a grocery store, your good employees would find a better employer and you would have a hard time getting a good employee, which would affect your bottom line. Employers had the choice to leave and had options. The power was with the general public, not with the business owners, so you had better be a good person, decent member of the community and treat everyone fairly.
Today, most grocery stores are huge chains. The 'owners' of these huge chains are disgustingly wealthy. The executive management of these huge chains make an ungodly amount of money too. Now I am not discounting the work they do. They certainly deserve to be paid well and they have a very important job. However, I do feel that they are paid WAAAAY to much, while the average worked is paid waaay to little. There work isn't THAT important. They aren't curing cancer. They aren't solving an energy crisis. They aren't helping make our education system better. Hell, they aren't really doing anything special outside of making a corporation a hell of a lot of money. Now all the employees of these chain stores aren't anything special either. They are just average people, high school students, mom's and retired guys. They all are just trying to earn a living. They deal with a lot of shit though. And let's be honest, they get paid nothing, relatively speaking. What choices do they have though? Let's assume they are average everyday people, no particular skills, not very intelligent and just trying to provide for themselves. It's extremely difficult to start a business of their own, takes money to make money. They aren't going to go to college. Prices are ridiculous, they aren't extremely smart and it probably won't do them a great deal of good anyway. So what do they do? They work their ass off. They make it into management. They work 50-60 hours a week (or more) to make an ok living. As an entry level manager, they literally live to work and make 45k. They can survive. Good luck starting a family on that wage though. Even if they bust their ass and make it to mid level management, is the amount of hours and time away from their family (if they can afford one) worth it to make a decent living? Again, if they were doing something for the greater good of humanity, I could understand it, but all this hard work for what? To make some people at the top of the food chain even more money?! Come on! Life is to short for that shit.
But what other choice do they have? They don't really have any. And large businesses know this. You have to put up with the bullshit, cause you need a job. They don't have to pay fair wages anymore (relative to the income their businesses make) because the employers are so large and control so much. The employees are really at the mercy of large businesses. Government won't stand up for the average person, because they are run by large businesses as well. In short, the average person is fucked and has to roll with it.
Now let's look at some of the other negative aspects of this. First of all, most households in the U.S. both the fathers and mothers work. They have a couple of options if they go this route.
1. Work opposite hours, take turns watching the kids and have very little time for the next 30 years to see each other.
2. Struggle their ass off. One of them works two jobs, one part time, and again, the family structure is very poor.
3. Work 9-5's and pay for daycare. The kids don't have proper parental guidance. Lack of parental guidance causes all sorts of issues. Poor education. Children at younger ages in life. Drug use, crime, etc... Basically, parental guidance is EXTREMELY important. I think we can all agree on this, look at the stupid shit we all make fun of in society today.
4. Be bums and live off the government. Which is a valid option for a lot of people. But again, the family structure often times falters under this scenario. Scenarios 3-4 will feed each other and continually make things worse for future generations.
As a result, the average person becomes less capable of providing for themselves and we all become even MORE at the mercy of those in power and with money.
Now I have absolutely no problem with businesses turning a healthy profit. But I despise the 'more more more' attitude of the vast majority of our businesses. Wouldn't it be nice of the profits from a company got distributed amongst the employees of that company, rather than the executive board and shareholders?
Now I understand some of you are going to come at me with "these businesses create so many great things yatta yatta" and that these rich people create jobs, innovate etc...
I have no doubt that is true, to an extent. But I think that these jobs could still be created and innovation could still occur at roughly the same rate, even with profits being spread amongst the average person.
I look at banks as an absolutely perfect example. Credit Unions are typically non-profit, for the community type centers. The managers of these credit unions make a good living. The employees are typically treated fairly. The customers get great deals. Low fee's, better rates than large banks etc... They are basically better on almost every level for the entire country than a large bank. Yet they aren't appreciated by the average person. If we had many more small businesses and did more to force large businesses to care about the community first, employees second and bottom line a distant third, this whole country would be a hell of a lot better.
I have a lot more thoughts on the subject I'd like to delve into, but this should be sufficient to kick it off.
For what its worth, I always thought that the 99%'s had this sort of thought process in mind, even though I'm sure there are a ton of people who are riding the coat tails of the 99% with ulterior motives.
I am also a Republican, so I figured that'd throw some of you off. In a nutshell though, I think both parties are completely fucked up when it comes to this subject. I think our whole country needs a reality check. Why are we so damn focused on making profits for large businesses, rather than living good, comfortable, enjoyable lives with our families? The amount of money we have in this country and the technology we possess, the vast majority of Americans could work a 35 hour a week job, live a nice life and enjoy the hell out of it, if we all worked for the betterment of the country, rather than the bottom line of giants.
Discuss.
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