EMPLOYEES AS "COSTS"

Not perfect, but good enough

From Business Insider:

The real problem is that American corporations, which are richer and more profitable than they have ever been in history, have become so obsessed with "maximizing short-term profits" that they are no longer investing in their future, their people, and the country.

This short-term corporate greed can be seen in many aspects of corporate behavior, from scrimping on investment spending to obsessing about quarterly earnings to fretting about daily fluctuations in stock prices. But it is most visible in the general attitude toward average employees.

Employees are human beings. They are people who devote their lives to creating value for customers, shareholders, and colleagues.  And, in return, at least in theory, they share in the rewards of the value created by their team.

In theory.

In practice, American business culture has become so obsessed with maximizing short-term profits that employees aren't regarded as people who are members of a team. 
Rather, they are regarded as "costs."

Employees are seen not as valuable assets but rather as "costs" which must be reduced as much as possible to increase profits for the corporations which are already earning record profits and pay huge salaries and bonuses to further line the pockets of top employees who are already rich.  And, as a general policy, if the company has a bad year, the employees take the hit with layoffs, reduced benefits, and frozen wages, and - tah dah! - those at the top get bonuses.

Short term profits and daily stock prices take precedence over sharing with employees the results of their labors.  Think of it: Human beings who spend the better part of their lives building and keeping corporations running are considered liabilities rather than assets.  Greater and greater numbers of those who once considered themselves middle class are sliding into poverty.

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

As more and more of the wealth of the US shifts to the haves, will the time ever come when the numbers of people who can purchase the goods and services of the corporations fall to such a low point that the profits of the corporations diminish, and the bubble pops?  People with lower incomes must spend their money on every day subsistence, but the wealthy are able to invest and hoard their wealth. 

As Amie Bush said on Facebook, "People are costs and corporations are people.  It's a crazy-messed-up world we are a'livin' in people!   I mean folks!   Uh, I mean costs!"

TIRED,TIRED, TIRED

Today I feel as though I've been trying with my bare hands to hold President Obama and Democrats in the Senate and the House accountable to implement the policies which led me to vote for them in the first place - policies which will bring a measure of fairness and equality to the citizens of the United States.  I know I'm not alone and that many others are fighting, too, but I'm tired and about ready to give up.  Among the politicians who know what is right, few have either the courage or the will to do the right thing.

I'm tired of the Democrats' appeasement of Republican politicians who apparently care only about rich donors who fill their campaign chests.  Keep in mind that all in the Congress are well-cared for with their yearly automatic raises that they don't even have to vote on, and their generous benefits and pensions.  I'm tired of Democrats who feel the need to express politically-correct concern about the deficit at this time, when they know what the people of the country want and need are jobs and money to pay their bills and buy the goods and services that are produced here, which would help the economy recover.  A strong economic recovery would, in itself, help reduce the deficit.  Why don't elected officials in the Democratic Party stop talking about the deficit and stay on message about creating jobs, jobs, jobs and a return to a robust economic recovery?  Our infrastructure is falling apart.  Why is it a good thing for the wealthiest country in the world to have a collapsing infrastructure?  Put people to work repairing and rebuilding.

Why is the stock market booming, reaching record heights, when so many in the country are suffering?  Watch the video below, which has gone viral.  The graphs are shocking, and, for me, depressing as they demonstrate the ever-widening income gap between the poor and middle class and the richest people in the country, the inequality that few politicians in the country are willing to address with realistic policies that will improve conditions for a large majority of the people.
Tired...

TOP 5 FACTS ABOUT THE WEALTHIEST 1%

From Think Progress:

1. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Owns 40 Percent Of The Nation’s Wealth.

2. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Take Home 24 Percent Of National Income.

3. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Own Half Of The Country’s Stocks, Bonds, And Mutual Funds.

4. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Have Only 5 Percent Of The Nation’s Personal Debt.

5. The Top 1 Percent Are Taking In More Of The Nation’s Income Than At Any Other Time Since The 1920s.

See the details and the charts and graphs, one of which is shown above, at Think Progress.

A reading from the Lectionary on the feast of St Francis of Assisi:

Jeremiah 22:13-16

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice;
who makes his neighbours work for nothing,
and does not give them their wages;
who says, ‘I will build myself a spacious house
with large upper rooms’,
and who cuts out windows for it,
panelling it with cedar,
and painting it with vermilion.
Are you a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.

Thanks to Paul the BB on Facebook for the link.

"LOSING OUR WAY"

From Bob Herbert in the New York Times:

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.
....

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.
....

The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent.

General Electric, the largest corporation in the country, paid zero taxes last year. The company's CEO, Jeffery Immelt, is on Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The numbers of citizens in the middle class continue to fall. Government services for the people in the land continue to be cut. More and more, the US looks like the land of opportunity for only the rich. And yet, somehow the US can always find the money to start another war.

Read Herbert's entire excellent column, which is his valedictory.

This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years.

So long, Bob. I, for one, will miss you, but I'm encouraged that your voice will not be silent, that you will continue to speak out after your departure from the NYT.

ARE WE A BANANA REPUBLIC YET?

From Philly.com

WASHINGTON - The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession.

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans - those making more than $100,000 each year - received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line, according to newly released census figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.

A different measure, the international Gini index, found U.S. income inequality at its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking household income in 1967. The U.S. also has the greatest disparity among Western industrialized nations. (My emphasis)
....

An -GfK Poll this month found that by 54 percent to 44 percent, most Americans support raising taxes on the highest U.S. earners. Still, many congressional Democrats have expressed wariness about provoking the 44 percent minority so close to Election Day.

"We're pretty good about not talking about income inequality," Danziger said.

My, my, we ARE good at sticking our heads in the sand and keeping them there when the subject of income inequality comes up. You'd think that the Democrats running for office would feel pressed to spell out policies for reducing the income gap between the rich and the poor. You'd think that they'd promote policies for restoring the numbers of the disappearing middle class. You'd think that these matters would be major talking points in their campaigns, but if you thought that, you'd be wrong.