Rant: The Scam of Corporate America

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
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81
I was talking with my a friend about some stuff because they were stressed about the pressures of their job. My friends works for a new company that's well funded and has the potential to become very successful in it's industry.

I noticed how many people, especially young people want so badly to be part of a company and help contribute to a business and be somehow part of any success that business acheives. They feel huge pressures from society, bosses, and even parents to perform. This causes a lot of young people a lot of stress. But if you think about it, most of the time it's really a scam.

Why would you want to sacrifice your mental capacity, all your ambitions and strengths, and most importantly your time to spend it on contributing towards someone else's company and goal?

Even more, stress causes physical damage, it shortens your life and deteriorates your health, so in effect, you are physically sacrificing your body to make other people wealthy, while you often receive little more than a "raise" or a paltry "promotion" for your efforts.

Granted, there are exceptions in companies like Google or Facebook, that because of a company's generosity, they are able to share their success and make many, if not most of their employees millionaires, but the vast majority of the time (including mine and my friend's case) we are given very little in terms of stock options. And in large companies, sometimes you're given no stock options at all, just the pipe dream of one day.....in a distant world, you'll get promoted.....but still have to work your butt off for that next promotion. Maybe you'll get a stock matching 401k or some other junk, but you'll die middle class and having spent your entire life working for someone else's dream.

In the end, no matter how many promotions you receive, or how hard you try, the top leaders of the company will still be flying around in private jets, have million dollar bonuses, and your idea of success will be to dine at Red Lobster or lease a C-Class Mercedes and have the illusion you're living the American Dream.

Why should a person spend their entire life, all their energy, and forfeit all their own personal dreams and ambitions for the sake of someone else's dream?

Why should a person have to work until they're 65 and having spent their youth away for someone else and having nothing to show for it but a cookie cutter house and a leased car?

I'm not rich and I'm not living the true dream yet, I'm like most of you, just working day to day. But I own a business and I hope this will be my ticket out of the corporate rat race. Why do so few get this?

My main question: Why do people give up so much of themselves, just to see someone's dreams of goals come to fruition?

Discuss.
 
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busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
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76
Why would you want to sacrifice your mental capacity, all your ambitions and strengths, and most importantly your time to spend it on contributing towards someone else's company and goal?

You become a part of the company you work for.. it is not someone else's company.
 

Pliablemoose

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
25,195
0
56
Who in the hell leases a car nowdays?

Read "the millionaire next door" and get back to me in 20 years...

You're spouting entitlement BS, no one is going to hand you life on a silver platter, you generally have to claw your way to the top of the heap, and I gotta tell you, leasing a car is one quick way to the bottom...
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
You become a part of the company you work for.. it is not someone else's company.

So why does the owner get all the money and most people are left with just maybe a little 401k and nothing else to show for it?

Show me the money. If I'm a part of the company, I better be part of the check getting written when the company is sold for a ton of money. But that's rarely the case.
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
You're spouting entitlement BS, no one is going to hand you life on a silver platter, you generally have to claw your way to the top of the heap, and I gotta tell you, leasing a car is one quick way to the bottom...

You're completely missing my point. I'm using leasing cars as an example of someone who is living a lifestyle they cannot afford.

This is not an autobiographical post. I own my late model car outrite and have no debt and own a business. I'm speaking to this in general of why most people give up so much of themselves to the corporate life.

Why question is, why do so many people care so much about their jobs when so few reap of the benefits of it's success?
 

Slew Foot

Lifer
Sep 22, 2005
12,379
96
86
Who in the hell leases a car nowdays?

Read "the millionaire next door" and get back to me in 20 years...

You're spouting entitlement BS, no one is going to hand you life on a silver platter, you generally have to claw your way to the top of the heap, and I gotta tell you, leasing a car is one quick way to the bottom...


Lease= 100% tax deduction. If you're a corporation anyway
 

lothar

Diamond Member
Jan 5, 2000
6,674
7
76
Well yes, this is the point of my entire post. I work full time but I also own a fledgling business.
Do you have any employees?
If so, be sure to link them to this thread so they will stop working for you. :sneaky:
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
65,664
14,056
146
You become a part of the company you work for.. it is not someone else's company.

No, you're just a cog in the machine...easily replaced. Unless you're the owner, it IS someone else's company.

Corporations aren't necessarily bad things, but they've been given far too much power.

aho.jpg
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
So why does the owner get all the money and most people are left with just maybe a little 401k and nothing else to show for it?

Show me the money. If I'm a part of the company, I better be part of the check getting written when the company is sold for a ton of money. But that's rarely the case.


I thought you were being serious before.. now you are totally trolling.
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
No, you're just a cog in the machine...easily replaced. Unless you're the owner, it IS someone else's company.

Corporations aren't necessarily bad things, but they've been given far too much power.

You're correct. When you say they've been given too much power, your definition of that isn't nearly as broad.

Where corporate America has been given too much power is in it's brainwashing of our population into dedicating their time, lives, health, and emotions into maintaining them for other people's benefit.

Every year millions of people enroll in colleges across the nation in hopes of getting a "good job." But the only thing they'll be getting in a lifetime of effort and if they're lucky, a decent roof over their head and little else. All while other people fly in corporate jets and drive sports cars.

I'm not hating on those who are rich, I'm only saying people should wake up and create their own success OR at the very minimum, don't stress out over your jobs and dedicate your soul to a company.
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
I thought you were being serious before.. now you are totally trolling.

Yeah anyone who thinks outside the box is "Trolling." If you cannot see my opinion, you're brainwashed by the colleges and corporations who are trying to control you.
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
Why? What do you contribute that merits such things?

Instead of attacking me, I want you to listen to my opinion very closely, as I'll be willing to listen to yours.

I and others like me, deserve at least a reasonable piece of the pie because are the ground troops.

At my company, I personally have been responsible for over $5 million dollars in business in the last 3 years. Both in creating sales, making our processes more efficient, and bring in new channels of business.

I work in a company of about 200. My CEO? Doesn't even know my name. Yet he owns 99% of the company.

I'm not hating on him. He made the rules and I signed up for them.

But my question is, why should I put in any sort of effort beyond avoiding being fired?

Why should I stress out over my job?

Why should I let my job "define" me and become a part of my life as most people do?

Me? My goal everyday is to not get fired. Make myself look good. Not be immoral (I try to be a decent guy, I'm not a bad employee). And keep my mind fresh so when I go home, I can work on my business, which is where my real effort goes to.

But some people their job is everything to them. It consumes and defines them. Yet when success arrives, companies rarely compensate their employees for all the blood, sweat, and tears they put into it's success.

Most CEOs these days are nothing but corporate philosophers. Sitting in leather chairs out of harms way, out of the customer's eye, making some obscure plan and then directing their minions to figure out the details and make sense of their abstract corporations directives.
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
the funny thing is that the people that own that company probably work half as hard as an employee like you. im always amazed when people think its unfair for super rich to pay more taxes, they say things like "the top 1% already pays 95% of the taxes." yeah, but they also take 95% of income and do .0001% of the work
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
Answer me this question:

Who decides how much money an employee earns?

The employee does, because they are the one who decides whether or not they will accept the job.

But society has put undue pressures and influence on young people, brainwashing them into thinking the highest aspiration a person can have is to work at a corporation and climb the corporate ladder. In the end the person is stuck with nothing but a meager pay check and 75% of their time spent at an office, away from the ones they love, but instead working to make someone else rich.

I'm questioning society's notion in this very thread.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,111
318
126
Who is forcing that image? Working for large corporations may be inevitable for many people, but it doesn't necessarily mean corporate ladder climbing, and failing to do so isn't necessarily a bad thing. One can be an electrical engineer for a wide variety of mega-huge corporations and still make very good $$.
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
the funny thing is that the people that own that company probably work half as hard as an employee like you. im always amazed when people think its unfair for super rich to pay more taxes, they say things like "the top 1% already pays 95% of the taxes." yeah, but they also take 95% of income and do .0001% of the work

You have to reward intelligence and entrepreneurial skills. But on the other hand, people need to wake up and demand more for their efforts, or strike out and start businesses of their own and put their former employers out of business.

Hard work certainly does not equal lots of money. Intelligence = money.

Their is a serious lack of noble and hard working CEOs and corporate officers in today's society. Not enough guys willing to roll up their sleaves and work the same 60 hour shifts their employees are when they're making seven digit salaries.
 

JMapleton

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2008
4,179
2
81
Who is forcing that image? Working for large corporations may be inevitable for many people, but it doesn't necessarily mean corporate ladder climbing, and failing to do so isn't necessarily a bad thing. One can be an electrical engineer for a wide variety of mega-huge corporations and still make very good $$.

What do you consider "very good money"? There is no reason to celebrate merely surviving. I don't want to merely "get by."

I want to drive Ferraris and fly in private jets. Wouldn't we all? Well, why aren't we all trying?

But money isn't everything. I may fail and never get there, but at least I will say I tried. You can be happy without money, but knowing you missed an opportunity can really weigh on a person when they're older.
 

busydude

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2010
8,793
5
76
The employee does, because they are the one who decides whether or not they will accept the job.

Everyone wants to make more money than they are making today. But at the same time people have to realistic.. not every one can become an astronaut, but everyone with sufficient motor skills can mop the floors.
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
6,574
3
0
You have to reward intelligence and entrepreneurial skills. But on the other hand, people need to wake up and demand more for their efforts, or strike out and start businesses of their own and put their former employers out of business.

Hard work certainly does not equal lots of money. Intelligence = money.

Their is a serious lack of noble and hard working CEOs and corporate officers in today's society. Not enough guys willing to roll up their sleaves and work the same 60 hour shifts their employees are when they're making seven digit salaries.

im not sure its intelligence, you only have to be smart enough to enslave some worker bees who are smarter than you are. do you really think bill gates or mark zuckerberg are half as smart as the guys designing their products?