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!"