Le Jacquelope
Loves Spam
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2003
- Posts
- 76,445
Rush Limbaugh once declared "America Held Hostage" when Clinton entered office as President of the US.
But what he doesn't realize is we're being held hostage yet again. This time, by corporations.
Corporations are defined as entities that maximize shareholder return on investment.
What that means in great unwashed speak is they serve to maximize profits and minimize overhead costs.
That having been established, corporations inherently are hindered from doing their best when:
a) they're required to provide a safe workplace for their employees
b) the employees are paid any wages
c) there are taxes involved
d) they're required to prevent environmental problems of any sort, or to clean up any that they create
e) they provide health care benefits
What this means is:
In the United States of America, we have (in addition to taxes) a tradition of increasingly strict laws against industrial pollution, child labor, unsafe workplaces, unlivable wages (minimum wage laws), sweatshop environments, and other things that have been achieved and held onto since as far back as the turn of the 20th century.
Corporations now are outsourcing their work overseas. Where are they going? To China, Singapore, and other nations where:
a) prisoner labor and child labor is legal or even encouraged
b) workplaces are relatively grossly unsafe, even deadly at times (see: Dow in Bhopal, India)
c) wages are rock bottom
d) industrial pollution is uncontrolled (16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in outsource-friendly China, for instance)
e) factory laborers are routinely not paid for their hours worked
But this is also a problem that has manifested domestically. When employers hire illegal immigrants, they're:
a) not paying them even a minimum wage
b) providing neglected and thus unsafe working conditions
plus taking taxes out of their paychecks even though they make too little to pay taxes
The corporate strategy with immigrants and foreign outsourcing is simple. It is to create more competition for jobs so as to put downward pressure on wages (a corporate overhead cost).
Scenario A: Without illegal immigrants or outsourcing - 10,000 people compete for 20,000 jobs
Scenario B: With illegal immigrants and outsourcing - 10,000,000 people compete for what is now 50,000 jobs (a highly generous figure for the jobs that are supposedly created by this)
Corporations have propagandists acting both in Government and in the political op ed sections of the printed page.
Here's how that goes.
You always hear conservatives saying one thing. Spot the pattern.
1) Drop the minimum wage or you'll lose jobs overseas.
2) Do away with OSHA and "draconian" workplace safety laws or your jobs will go overseas.
3) Environmental protection laws force jobs to go overseas.
4) 40 hour-limit Overtime laws push jobs overseas.
What is the core of each of these arguments?
Give up all of the labor rights that previous generations fought and died for, or we'll take your jobs overseas.
They're not saying this to your face, but they're doing it.
Your right to a week off once a year, or your jobs. Choose one.
[color=dark red]Your safe drinking water or your jobs.[/color] Choose one.
Your breathable air or your jobs. Choose one.
Your right not to have children or prisoners used in factory labor. Choose one!
And the ultimate insult: Corporations believe "Rights are irrelevant. There are only priviledges that you trade in exchange for jobs."
EVERYTHING that corporations do and EVERYTHING that right wingers argue is consistent with these patterns. This is not to say that there is some kind of Dr. Evil scheming conspiracy at work; corporations, shareholders, and the politicians that they control, are all part of a logical mechanism that has no need for conspiracies. But it is still dangerous because it shows an increasing disregard for the American way of life and for the freedoms our predecessors fought and died for.
How can you do something about it? For starters, establish black lists of companies not to buy products from, and stick to it.
Wal Mart is a good first example.
Second, you could print this out, or write it in your own words, and put out flyers for others to read and see exactly why it is that their jobs are going to hell in a handbasket. PLUS you can also encourage them to develop their own blacklists.
Get enough people to act and the Government will finally start to listen.
But what he doesn't realize is we're being held hostage yet again. This time, by corporations.
Corporations are defined as entities that maximize shareholder return on investment.
What that means in great unwashed speak is they serve to maximize profits and minimize overhead costs.
That having been established, corporations inherently are hindered from doing their best when:
a) they're required to provide a safe workplace for their employees
b) the employees are paid any wages
c) there are taxes involved
d) they're required to prevent environmental problems of any sort, or to clean up any that they create
e) they provide health care benefits
What this means is:
In the United States of America, we have (in addition to taxes) a tradition of increasingly strict laws against industrial pollution, child labor, unsafe workplaces, unlivable wages (minimum wage laws), sweatshop environments, and other things that have been achieved and held onto since as far back as the turn of the 20th century.
Corporations now are outsourcing their work overseas. Where are they going? To China, Singapore, and other nations where:
a) prisoner labor and child labor is legal or even encouraged
b) workplaces are relatively grossly unsafe, even deadly at times (see: Dow in Bhopal, India)
c) wages are rock bottom
d) industrial pollution is uncontrolled (16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in outsource-friendly China, for instance)
e) factory laborers are routinely not paid for their hours worked
But this is also a problem that has manifested domestically. When employers hire illegal immigrants, they're:
a) not paying them even a minimum wage
b) providing neglected and thus unsafe working conditions
plus taking taxes out of their paychecks even though they make too little to pay taxes
The corporate strategy with immigrants and foreign outsourcing is simple. It is to create more competition for jobs so as to put downward pressure on wages (a corporate overhead cost).
Scenario A: Without illegal immigrants or outsourcing - 10,000 people compete for 20,000 jobs
Scenario B: With illegal immigrants and outsourcing - 10,000,000 people compete for what is now 50,000 jobs (a highly generous figure for the jobs that are supposedly created by this)
Corporations have propagandists acting both in Government and in the political op ed sections of the printed page.
Here's how that goes.
You always hear conservatives saying one thing. Spot the pattern.
1) Drop the minimum wage or you'll lose jobs overseas.
2) Do away with OSHA and "draconian" workplace safety laws or your jobs will go overseas.
3) Environmental protection laws force jobs to go overseas.
4) 40 hour-limit Overtime laws push jobs overseas.
What is the core of each of these arguments?
Give up all of the labor rights that previous generations fought and died for, or we'll take your jobs overseas.
They're not saying this to your face, but they're doing it.
Your right to a week off once a year, or your jobs. Choose one.
[color=dark red]Your safe drinking water or your jobs.[/color] Choose one.
Your breathable air or your jobs. Choose one.
Your right not to have children or prisoners used in factory labor. Choose one!
And the ultimate insult: Corporations believe "Rights are irrelevant. There are only priviledges that you trade in exchange for jobs."
EVERYTHING that corporations do and EVERYTHING that right wingers argue is consistent with these patterns. This is not to say that there is some kind of Dr. Evil scheming conspiracy at work; corporations, shareholders, and the politicians that they control, are all part of a logical mechanism that has no need for conspiracies. But it is still dangerous because it shows an increasing disregard for the American way of life and for the freedoms our predecessors fought and died for.
How can you do something about it? For starters, establish black lists of companies not to buy products from, and stick to it.
Wal Mart is a good first example.
Second, you could print this out, or write it in your own words, and put out flyers for others to read and see exactly why it is that their jobs are going to hell in a handbasket. PLUS you can also encourage them to develop their own blacklists.
Get enough people to act and the Government will finally start to listen.
