Kalifornia Re-Institutes Slavery

reply to post by SM2


Ok, how about I call it indentured servitude then.

Or possibly serfdom?

hmmm

Perhaps extortion?

Yes, I like extortion.

The State extorting work out of individuals, keeping their pay, collecting interest on the money that rightfully belongs to the worker, while forcing the worker to work without pay under threat of termination and loss of benefits in an economy where the worker is unlikely to find new employment.

Yes, extortion fits the bill.

Wait a minute? DMV employees? F them! Good! Maybe it will teach them to move that damn line a little faster. Just call it payback for the people having to go there and waste hours upon hours of our lives waiting in line for a damn drivers licence!

First of all I can't see how having the employees come in on furlough fridays in exchange for an alternate day off later in the year can be equated to slavery.

Furthermore, have you been in a DMV lately? If these people would get off their a$$es and work at a snails pace at least then they wouldn't be so far behind as to have to work these days.

Many times, a trip to the DMV is wasted because you didn't bring the correct paperwork, or you didn't get a required signature, etc.

In my town there is a lady that sits outside the door to the DMV and will cheerfully check your paperwork before you spend time in line only to be declined because of lack of whatever.

This is just one little thing my city/state has done to reduce waiting in line.

I think you guys live in fantasy world.

The real world, where I live, employees at the DMV do not even "work" at all. Unless you consider sitting on your fat butt all day being a useless gov't employee "work".

I am greatly in favor of a privatized version of the DMV where various companies can compete with each other to provide a better service.

That way I will not have to wait around all day for these idiots to get their act together.

Ladies and gentlemen, the downward spiral towards communism has begun.

To all the people saying that because of the DMV are pathetic, sloven ingrates and deserve it, what do you do?

I will make sure to piss on you when your Fascist Government forces your company to make you work for free.

The old poem of They came for the communist first comes to mind.

reply to post by endisnighe


So are they rounding up DMV employees and putting them into death camps?

That is what that poem is about you know, marching people off to die. It's very offensive to Holocaust survivors to hear that poem being used the way people have been using it lately.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.

Written by Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

Martin Niemöller was a Holocaust survivor, he wrote that poem after living in places like Dachau. None of us know what it was like to live in one of those hell holes watching people starve to death, watching people being executed and eradicated off of the face of the earth, and when people use it out of that context it really does a disservice to the man who wrote it and the people he wrote it about. He was there, he witnessed it, he saw something 100 times worse than some DMV employees having to take a furlough.

[edit on 1/11/2010 by whatukno]

reply to post by whatukno

He was there, he witnessed it, he saw something 100 times worse than some DMV employees having to take a furlough.

Taking a furlough? This has to do with being FORCED to work for free. Or did I miss something?

And you bringing up the expanded explanation of my quote reference only helps in my analogy.

Who was it just earlier saying I want to bring back slavery?

And here you are saying this is fine! Hypocrite much?

As long as it goes to YOUR agenda ANYTHING is on the table! Even slavery! What a joke.

Originally posted by endisnighe
reply to post by whatukno

 

He was there, he witnessed it, he saw something 100 times worse than some DMV employees having to take a furlough.

Taking a furlough? This has to do with being FORCED to work for free. Or did I miss something?

And you bringing up the expanded explanation of my quote reference only helps in my analogy.

Who was it just earlier saying I want to bring back slavery?

And here you are saying this is fine! Hypocrite much?

As long as it goes to YOUR agenda ANYTHING is on the table! Even slavery! What a joke.

Naa...to call this slavery is hyperbole! It is administrative Bravo Sierra.

There are some simple ways out of the California crisis, but the politicians won't listen to their constituents. You always have to have a mass uprising for them to listen. Many good ideas are passed over because they are too busy to listen. Lately, I tried to get paid for being unemployed. Since I was working on commission, putting in a 40 hour week, but not receiving pay, they would not pay me unemployment. Some catch there I don't understand. The system would have paid me $1955 per month if I had just stayed home. And they wonder why people who are on the unemployed extended benefits are robbing the system.

In the 60's, California made a major mistake. They changed the pay scale for state workers. They wanted to be competitive with the wages in the private sector. That made pay go up dramatically. Now, we have regents at the University of California being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their services, and the entire state system of workers is overpaid and over-pensioned. It used to be a good deal to have a state job, because you had security. People were willing to take a pay cut for the security. Back in the days of Gov. Edmund G. Brown, there was a lot of work being done by "underpaid" state workers, and they did a professional job. That was when California was at it's zenith financially, and state taxes were lower per capita. That's called good management.

Our laws fill prisons with people who have committed non-violent crimes that would be better serving the state if they were in community service projects. It costs more to incarcerate a prisoner than it does to educate a child through the University of California.

The Child Protective Services agents pick up your children for little or no provocation as if the foster system had unlimited funding. Earmarked bills pass through the congress paying off good old boys. The governor is not a seasoned politician, stands on both sides of the isle, and wonders why he can't get a consensus on important issues. Politicians are unwilling or unable to control CPS and the Dept of Health and Human Services because it is a political hot potato, and they don't have the guts to do it. Because of that, it is a runaway system. In California, 61% of the children picked up should have been left alone and with their original families. However, because they have been picked up, the courts, lawyers, and social workers have put a financial burden on the state of tens of thousands of dollars per child, enough to put another student through the University of California.

The Medicaid system in California is broken. For example, an elderly person on Medicaid and MediCal (Medicaid in California) needs to be put on Medicare Advantage with prescription drug coverage to nearly eliminate all Medicaid costs....but no one is thinking at the government level to move in that direction. For example, a typical senior on MediCal would go out to get a prescription drug that may cost $130 per month. Of that $130, Medicare would pay none. MediCal would pay all the rest except $1 that the senior citizen would pay. If the same person were on a Medicare Advantage Rx program, the MA Rx program would pick up $123 of the $130, relieving MediCal of the burden of paying the $123. Multiply that times millions of seniors, and look what you have. So, why hasn't the Dept of Insurance, or any state worker, come up with that plan? Dunno.

DMV could reduce their costs by enrolling every two years instead of annually. That law could be passed today, easily. That would cut the DMV task burden in half. How simple an idea, but no one is thinking.

The list of state spending screwups is long and painful. They would rather focus on gay rights than on substantive issues that cost the state a fortune. Immorality or dishonesty can cripple a democracy.


[edit on 1/11/2010 by Jim Scott]

Okay, so here's the situation ..

In order to save money, the State decided to close the DMV on Fridays. Employees worked a 4 day week and had a 3 day weekend. In there attempt to save money, they created a huge backlog of work.

In order to fix the backed up workload, they offered workers an opportunity to earn overtime pay by volunteering to work on Saturday. There wasn't enough employees willing to voluntarily work on Saturday for overtime pay.

So now, the State is requiring that employees work on Friday again, but instead of getting paid for their 8 hours of labor, they are being compensated with Paid Time Off, that they will be allowed to take at a later date.

The employees themselves agree and recognize that they are way behind and that there is a lot of work to catch up on. They had the chance to collect overtime pay by volunteering to work on one of their days off, but not enough people cared enough to do it.

I like this quote from one employee .. "I feel like I have a leash around my neck," Irma Banuelos said. "It's come to work. It's come to work and if you don't, you're in trouble."

Isn't that the idea with ANY job?

This is in no way even compartively close to Slavery or Extortion.

This is another problem with a lot of people in America, maybe elsewhere too but since I don't live elsewhere I can only comment about America. People no longer give a damn about their job or their employers. They no longer have, for lack of a better term, 'Team Spirit'. They're too worried about the "me" factor. 'What about me?' 'What about what I do?'

I agree that employers should take care of their employees by offering competetive wages, benefits, health care, and performance based bonuses. But I also think that employees should take care of their employers by performing at their highest level that they're capable of providing. Be willing to put in the extra effort or to perform extra work in order to help the company succeed. If the company succeeds, then the employee succeeds.

Far too many people want to sit on their asses and do as little as possible while expecting to get paid as much as possible.

If these people don't want to do the work, then they need to be fired and replaced, because I promise you, there are THOUSANDS of unemployed people in California right now that would jump at the chance to get their job. State wages, state benefits, paid holidays, paid vacation ... Yeah, I think these people should be considering themselves lucky to have such a job and should work hard to keep it.

reply to post by Detailed Perfection


So the OP was incorrect when stating that they are not being forced to work for no pay?

Alright, than I was mistaken, foot deftly removed from mouth.

If these people don't want to do the work, then they need to be fired and replaced, because I promise you, there are THOUSANDS of unemployed people in California right now that would jump at the chance to get their job. State wages, state benefits, paid holidays, paid vacation ... Yeah, I think these people should be considering themselves lucky to have such a job and should work hard to keep it.

Just imagine if this was a private company. I wonder if supply and demand would come more into play? The market for workers is flooded in CA right now. Speaking from experience, I left Sept 08.

Love being out of that quagmire.

Have you changed your W2 so they are not taking more taxes than required?

reply to post by endisnighe


My W2? Not sure if that question was directed at me or if it was rhetorical.

I own my own business, I pay plenty of taxes believe me. I am also running for election to a local office.