Working Life

I wish I had a dime for every scare tactic used by business over my lifetime — scare tactics to argue against any taxes (“we’ll leave”), or to argue for so-called “free trade” etc. etc…because it’s a bitch when those scare tactics turn out, in reality, to be as substantive as cotton candy. Add sick leave to the list.

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Who is the guy who sits in some corporate office trying to think about the newest way to fleece workers? Is that a job title…”head of fleecing workers department”? I’m guessing with Wal-Mart, it might just be one of the actual Waltons, what with their particular greed and apparent enjoyment at discriminating against women and impoverishing workers. Which bring us to the newest scam: payroll cards.

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There is so much rubbish the traditional media churns out about taxes it’s just hard to keep track of it. So, what’s a thinking person to do? Check this out.

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So, when I read this shit, I admit to laughing: there is a certain about of humor I find, mixed with the disgust, in the absolute ability of the captains of industry to continue to act like pigs at the trough in the face of all the misery of unemployment, low wages, no pensions and fear still coursing throughout every community. The system of greed, fired up by the great, almighty, “free market”, just soldiers on in another fourth dimension. They just do not care

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Well, I saw a day or two ago that the Administration was going to cut off Bangladesh’s trade preferences. In one sense, okay, finally. But, on the other hand, it’s sort of a minor thing if you are thinking “this will protect workers”.

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Five years ago, I wrote something with almost the same title — and I resurrect this today because the Senate passed an immigration bill. Whatever you think about the bill, in my view, it avoids a central point: we ignore the fundamental reason people flee their homes and what needs to be done to change that forced flight.

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I’m always on the lookout for things to add to the George Orwell list of “War is Peace” double talk. So, now, comes a threat to the whole idea of winning neutrality agreements in union organizing campaigns.

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Every day, it’s possible to shake your head and wonder: where do they find these people? These people who run for office and are truly clueless about reality and, especially, economic facts. You can throw a rock anywhere in Washington, D.C. and you are almost guaranteed to his a member of Congress walking around in a “I must do everything to help corporations” trance. Like John Delaney.

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For a very long time, I’ve pointed out the moral outrage of the so-called “minimum wage”, so-called because it is really a poverty wage, not a minimum wage. Minimum wage gives the impression that it is the minimum a person can live on. But, you can’t live on that wage. That’s where a hike in the poverty wage is welcome, even if it is still not enough.

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I’m typically quite critical of the traditional media’s refusal to write about workers’ struggles on a regular basis, and without the “free market” spin. But this is an example of a strong story.

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