No Company Should Survive on Slave Labor

 ~ Rant ~  

If the only way a company can survive is by paying it's workers slave wages, then that company should not exist.

I've read lots of rational and reasonable sounding words to explain why companies absolutely must pay their workers slave wages.

What it boils down to is they are trying very hard to fool us into believing that paying unlivable wages is just good business.

Let's flip the situation around.

If the company costs too much and produces too little then that company, as if it were an employee, should be fired.

That company should not exist.

Why is it OK to pay slave wages, so employees are forced on to welfare, or in some cases, living on the street, just so the business can survive and continue to pay unlivable wages?

One argument to that is if the business goes under, then even more people will be unemployed.

Whoa, whoa, whoa... Go back and reread my sentence before that.

The employees are already on welfare or living on the streets. Being unemployed isn't much more of a change.

A truth of life: employees, at this level, are trapped with little to no prospect of ever escaping. The rare few who do, truly are rare and extremely lucky.

There was a time when being steady and reliable workers would ensure the employees would progress to better pay. Then with the extra money they could afford more education and progress even further. This upward mobility has been lost for most Americans.

Wages are too low.

The cost of living and the cost of education are too high.

I've written before how employers encourage welfare. There are systems in place to make sure people stay trapped in dead-end, slave-wage jobs because that is the only way most companies can survive.



Comments
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Desperation is About to Throw a Very Hard Punch

Rant

When reading about minimum-wage, livable wage, and employment in general, I frequently come across a line of thinking similar to what commenter "DaHerm" posted on DaggerPress.com:

"An number of folks (Noble, Keith, h) need to take Econ 101 again. Wages are not decided based on the relative cost of living. An employer decides how much he can afford to pay a worker based on the skills needed, the cost structure of the business, the value returned to the business by that employee and how competitive the job market is for different levels of skill sets. They are minimum wage jobs because they represent the minimum skills need to work, not necessarily to provide all of life’s creature comforts. It is then up to the individual to make appropriate use of their wages. Since poverty is relative in a given population, you can never remove it by artificially inflating the wages paid. Someone will always have more, others less."

Here, here!

Work hard and do whatever it takes to succeed.

Here, here!

Now... for a dose of non-academic reality:

"In desperate times, desperate people do desperate things."

We live in a time when many Americans are struggling to survive. Things have been bad for many years and are only getting worse. More and more Americans are becoming desperate.

The way things are going in America, people will work hard... to figure out who to rob for what they need to survive. In doing so, they will do whatever it takes to succeed,... even if it means killing you and your loved ones.

Oh, right... you're a suburban Rambo-wananbe, with all sorts of automatic weapons, just itching to gun-down anyone who comes near your side of the cul-de-sac.

You're not the only one with guns.

One bullet from a desperate, expert marksman with a hunting rifle and all your Rambo ammo (and everything else of yours of value) will be theirs for the taking.

The police?

Too few, too far away,... too late.

All the fancy, economic theories and models, and masters of business administration degrees won't hold-up very well against angry mobs.

As Mike Tyson said, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."

Many Americans are becoming more and more desperate; so far, quietly. But the way things have been going, and will continue for the foreseeable future, their silence will break and they will start throwing some very hard punches.



Reference

DaggerPress.com, DaHerm, 2041_09_05:
http://www.daggerpress.com/2014/09/05/the-big-q-should-fast-food-restaurants-pay-workers-15-per-hour/#comment-276658



Comments
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Disposable Employers

 ~ Musing the Balance of Things ~ 

Employers view employees as disposable garbage; I wonder how long it will be until employees look at employers as disposable?

Think about it...

During this global economic depression, bosses have taken delight in reminding their employees of just how disposable the workers are.

"You don't like it!? Then quit. There's five million illegals that will do your job for less."

America is crumbling into unstable, part-time, minimum-wage, temporary jobs.

These jobs pay the same, most come with zero benefits, and workers have to depend on welfare just to survive.

So why stick around?

Jobs are coming back but most of them are coming back as part-time, minimum-wage, temporary jobs with no benefits.

So why stay in a miserable, part-time job working for a jerk of a boss?

There are millions other dead-end jobs out there; some of the bosses may even be decent enough to work for.

Eventually workers are going to figure this out and will begin treating employers as disposable.



Comments
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Obamacare - Economy Killer, Job Killer, People Killer

Rant

The Affordable Care Act, "Obamacare", is not affordable and does not provide care. Obamacare is an economy killer, job killer, and people killer.

Obamacare's enrollment period for next year has been announced by it's "hacker's wet-dream" web site botching the whole process and crashing... yet again.

Health insurance is not health care!

Just because you have health insurance does not mean you receive adequate health care,... if any meaningful health care at all!

How many of you, who do have health insurance, are able to keep the coverage that you actually need and were able to keep the doctor who knows your condition the best?

Uh-huh.

Don't give me the excuse that Obamacare is needed because a couple days in the hospital can cost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars that will bankrupt the patient.

Most Americans are in such bad, financial straights that a medical bill of one hundred dollars would, effectively, bankrupt them.

Do you get that!?

Many millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed to the point were they can't afford any medical bills, with or without insurance.

For millions Americans, if they are hurt or sick to the to point where, even after health insurance kicks in, their medical bills are in the many tens-of-thousands of dollars, they are in a condition that will prevent them from ever earning enough to pay off the medical bills.

We are in a global economic depression that will last for decades!

Their earning potential is shattered for what time remains of their lives.

A hundred bucks would bankrupt most Americans and yet the cheapest monthly premiums of Obamacare are a couple hundred dollars a month.

Either go bankrupt by medical bills or go bankrupt by health insurance bills.

It's a lose-lose situation for most Americans.

A consumer-driven economy, like the US's, can not exist if the majority of the consumers are bankrupt.

Obamacare is killing the US domestic economy by bleeding the economy dry of what little life-blood it has left.

Millions of Americans can't afford Obamacare's monthly premiums because either their full-time job was reduced to part-time or they lost their job due to their employer trying to avoid the taxes and penalties of Obamacare.

I know, from personal experience, that Obamacare has killed jobs, Obamacare is killing jobs and Obamacare will continue to kill jobs in this country.

The Democrats knew how devastating Obamacare is for the economy and that is why they panicked so much during the 2014 mid-term elections.

The Republicans had over four years to starve Obamacare of funding, to block or hinder it's implementations, to go on a four year, all-out, multi-media, face-to-face, advertising campaign to educate people and expose this sinister law for what it is... but they didn't.

The Republicans are nestled right next to the Democrats in the same deep pockets of lobbyist, big pharma, big insurance, and big corporations that benefit richly from Obamacare.

If killing the economy and killing jobs wasn't bad enough, Obamacare is fashioned to kill people too.

You've heard about the "death panels" and now Obamacare has "death squads" in the form of the IRS's S.W.A.T. teams.

If you are too poor to afford Obamacare's monthly premiums then you have to pay a fine.

If you are too poor to afford the fine, the IRS will come after you.

If you try to run away, the IRS's S.W.A.T. team will gun you down.

"But... but... the Obamacare is supposed to give free health care to poor people."

Wrong!

First, re-read the beginning of what I wrote - health insurance is not health care.

Second, unless you are an illegal alien with a false ID and false social security number, Obamacare will do everything except help you.

Obamacare - economy killer, job killer, people killer.



Comments
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Keystone XL Pipeline Means Cheap Oil for China

Today's Reading

Today's Reading, 2014_11_17 - Keystone XL Pipeline Means Cheap Oil for China

China and Canada have begun trading between each other with Chinese yuan. That includes China being able to buy Canadian oil with Chinese yuan instead of American dollars (the "petrodollar"). This makes buying oil much cheaper for China.

China has also been investing in Canadian tar sand, oil extraction and transport. If the Keystone XL pipeline deal doesn't come through, China wants alternatives to get Canadian oil.

China really wants Canadian oil.

If the Keystone XL pipeline is constructed, crude oil from Canadian tar sands will be piped down to the Gulf of Mexico. Once the crude oil reaches the Gulf, China can then take delivery of the oil in a Free Trade Zone without having to pay any taxes or tariffs on it.

The politicians tell us that the pipeline will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans yet, from what I've read, the more realistic number is a couple thousand jobs.

And most of those jobs will be eliminated after the pipeline is built, as in fewer than 100 permanent jobs will be left.

For the US to truly recover, somewhere around 300,000 new jobs - good paying, full-time, permanent jobs, not recycled, part-time, minimum-wage, temporary jobs - have to be created each and every month.

Cheap oil for China and paltry jobs for Americans, are just two of the downsides to the Keystone XL pipeline.



Reading Material

Wikipedia.org, What is a Free Trade Zone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_zone

Switchboard.nrdc.org, Anthony Swift: "Keystone XL is a tar sands pipeline to export oil out of the United States"
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aswift/keystone_xl_is_a_tar_sands_pip.html

Forbes.com, James Conca: "What is Wrong with the Keystone XL Pipeline?"
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/08/25/what-is-wrong-with-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/

NationalGeographic.com, David LaGesse: "Is Canadian Oil Bound for China via Pipeline to Texas?"
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/08/110819-keystone-xl-canadian-oil-and-chinese-market/

Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin: "The Keystone XL Pipeline and its Politics, Explained"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/04/03/the-keystone-xl-pipeline-and-its-politics-explained/

NewsMax.com, Courtney Coren: "China Would Get Alberta Oil if Keystone Pipeline Blocked"
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Keystone-Canada-China-oil/2014/03/24/id/561277/



Comments
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Craftsmanship Forsaken

 ~ A World of Garbage ~ 

Craftsmanship takes time to achieve the skills and knowledge to create beautiful things.

Craftsmanship takes time and care to create quality things.

Craftsmanship enhanced our world with the creativity and care taken.

So much is wrong with the world today because craftsmanship has been forsaken by people in favor of junk from places like Wal-Mart, obsessed with the mass production of that junk, and dependent upon the labor of slaves.




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Job Farce - Wanted - Liars and Cheaters

This Can't be Happening

Of the many barriers employers put in front of job seekers, at least two of the barriers strongly encourage lying and cheating.



#1 - Gaps in Employment History

Seriously!?

As of 2014, there has been six, straight, years of chronic, long-term, unemployment in America.

According to the Labor Participation Rate, just shy of 100 million, able-bodied, working-age (16 to 64 years of age), Americans are unemployed.

That is a third of the entire US population, or put another way - 30% unemployment!

Thirty percent is closer to the true unemployment figure of the US, not the phony, B.S., 5.8% that the government desperately wants you to believe.

With numbers like that, gaps in employment history are guaranteed. And quite often those gaps in employment are very long gaps.

In this global, economic, depression it is unreasonable for employers hold gaps in employment against job seekers but, unfortunately, that is exactly what employers do.

If you can't come up with an elaborate excuse, as to why you haven't been able to get another job in less than a day, you won't be hired let alone have an interview.

An elaborate excuse, a sugar-coated story, stretch the truth till it breaks... whatever you want to call it, it is fundamentally a lie.

Employers who demand you explain gaps in your work history are basically demanding that you lie to them.

If you can tell a good enough lie, you just might get the job.

That means employers are, effectively, looking for employees who are good liars.



#2 - The "Personality" Test

If you ever had any doubts that employers only see you as a disposable number, job application "personality" tests prove it.

A computer algorithm literally reduces you to a score; a number.

After you have fabricated lies to explain gaps in your employment history, you still have to cheat to score well enough on the personality test just to, maybe, have chance at being interviewed by another human being.

No guarantee of a job; just a slim chance that you will have an interview!

The farce goes farther when not even current employees can pass the personality test!!

These job application, personality tests have become so commonplace that seasoned job seekers know, if they really want the job interview, they have to cheat on the test.

Employers have overused personality tests to the point where it is encouraging cheating.

Employers that use these personality tests are, effectively, looking to hire cheaters.

If you look at the job application process of today, it really does seem like employers prefer to hire liars and cheaters.



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I Want a - None of the Above - Voting Option

Two Thumbs Down

When I looked at the voting ballot I was again thinking to myself, "I don't want to vote for you or you." So I left both boxes blank.

On most ballots, in the US, there are only two choices: Republican or Democrat.

Once in a while there may be an "Independent" option, and some places on the ballot may allow for a "write-in".

What I would like is a box in each ballot section with the option "None of the Above".

Your vote is your voice and when you are forced to leave a section blank, your voice has been effectively silenced.

Republicans that won in the 2014 mid-term elections didn't win because most voters love the Republican party; they won because voters wanted to send a message to the Democrat party. The only way voters could do that was to not vote for Democrats or, like me, in some sections of the ballot, not vote for either party.

Now there probably is some political party out there that actually calls themselves "None of the Above". I don't want that either.

What I want is a legally recognized "No" vote of all parties represented in each section of the ballot.

Especially for those sections where the incumbent has no opposition.

Voters may not like the incumbent but since there is no opponent to vote for the voters' voice is silenced.

I didn't vote for you and I didn't vote for you either and just because nobody was running against you doesn't mean I approve of you either. I want a way, on the ballot, to tell all of you that I think you are doing a terrible job.



Comments
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TLDR - How a Generation Excuses its Ignorance

The TLDR Generation

TLDR - short for "To Long, Didn't Read".

We used to call TLDR a "summary". We also knew that a summary was only a very brief description and not intended to impart full understanding. These days, it seems the younger generations are basing all of their understanding off of summaries or "TLDR"... if they bother to read even that much.

Their attention spans are so short that they can't even spell or write a complete sentence.

"dud y u no txt me"

"wut"

"nvm lol"

Which may, in good part, explain why America is ranking lower and lower in academics among the rest of the world.

The TLDR generation comes across as a bunch of gibbering idiots.



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Employers Encourage Welfare

Musings

If employers could, they would pay their employees nothing.

Employers say the employee is not worth paying a livable wage or the job is not worth paying a livable wage,... yet the job still needs to be done.

Since the employee isn't paid a livable wage, they depend on welfare to make up the difference.

Food stamps.

Subsidized housing.

Subsidized utilities.

Subsidized-everything that a living wage would have otherwise paid for.

So by not paying employees a livable wage, employers are encouraging welfare.

Welfare improves the businesses' profits because the cost of wages is spread-out among tax payers.

Since welfare boosts business profits, business taxes should go up to support the many millions of underpaid employees on welfare.




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