Originally posted by Greatest I am
Originally posted by tetra50
[only what despises all life could have made what this world is now appearing to be, and mocking women and their role in giving it, as
well.edit on 22-2-2013 by tetra50 because: (no reason given)
The world is appearing to be prospering with humans living longer and less poor than ever before.
And you think that those who pay and work for that good position despise life.
Rather a strange view. Care to explain it.
Would you rather we return to shorter and poorer lives?
Regards
DL
No, but to proceed with these facts in mind:
Some perspective on this, though: In the last 100 years, the workforce was primarily invested and employed in the durable goods quadrant of the
economy. As the life expectancy heightened, as you nod to, and it obviously became harder to provide those retirement benefits, insurance benefits.
It became quite expensive. An addendum to this as management styles changed, quotas to fill, sales numbers which increased steadily and then followed
the expectancies vis a vis sales to continually increase, no matter inflation, the failure of other durable goods companies, and the building of the
better mousetrap, which meant (remember the Maytag repairman put out of business because they were building too good a product, lasting too long and
not in need of repairing, as it was a successful, long lasting product…..
Better quality meant less work for the force, and still those companies were required to pay and deal with unions, retirement pensions, and increasing
salaries to deal with cost of living, not to mention health insurance extending to a worker's family who had been faithful to the company for so many
years: i.e., all those benefits to the worker, and the unions making them commonplace requirements, while the quality of the product was such that
the expense of all that no longer justified the means. And so, the American work force changed. Early retirement, jobs which held off unions by on
the one hand providing benefits up to a point, but then the pensions and 401 K's were still costing a fortune. In that climate, it became obvious
the forty, fifty year faithful employee making a long lasting, quality product had himself/herself become obsolete, too expensive for companies to
maintain their commitment to.
Car companies, the steel industries, many durable goods industries had to change then, and especially due to the new politically motivated NAFTA and
free trade with Asian companies,importing from a more productive more cheaply paid in a less restrictive OSHA or other overseeing bodies (wage and
labor boards with government provided union enforced oversight and freer taxing and government oversight in those countries became easier and cheaper,
and further downgraded durable goods built in this country, further eroding the American workforce and its viability. Practices in order to stay in
business, due to inflation and long term commitments costing money these companies could no longer afford and see adequate profit margins to support
their burgeoning management and administrative levels had to adjust, or simply companies here had to go out of business due to the cost of doing it.
The result were political administrations, heavily monetarily supporting campaign financing to control the future of legislation regarding these
former business practices, allowing for the vacating of the American workforce, in favor of outsourcing, and the immigrant work force, which expected
much less and would take it with little choice from inflation, bankruptcy of huge durable good companies,
So, the whole nature of the workforce of America, the cost of doing business here in order to provide this "American Dream," or working hard all
your life, committed to one company, and having the house, the 2.5 plus kids, funding the college funds, the 401 k's for retirement of long time
workers combined with an upper level management, an increasing division between the upper class and the almost complete disintegration of the middle
class, for the above mentioned reasons, took its toll.
First, products became more cheaply produced, a built in obsolescence, if you will: the first version being produced with planned obsolescence. You
buy it, new, at its highest price, with its bugs and problems, and the next version fixes all that, at a higher price, while the social medias and
advertising encourage the public to become addicted to their new and bell and whistle devices, with aforementioned built in, so that you have to
purchase the upgrade soon to have the latest.
This served a dual, if not triple purpose: First, another thing had come along: the internet, replete with the advertising of all the bells and
whistles, interconnectivity, cool things the tech could do, selling us on it, addicting us to it, until we had to have it to even function. You not
only need an address to get a job and paycheck; you need an email address and a cell phone to get the best work opportunities, to stay in that
mainstream of economic opportunity, not to mention the perks of social connectivity to keep you involved in being cool, having friends, not to mention
the economic opportunities necessary to "network," (it's all in whom you know) to be judged to be part of this surrounding culture to participate
in it, and reap the rewards from it, much less survive in this business and social climate. These things, and the advertisements that sell it as
cool, normal, and gadgety rewarding and a keeping up with the Jones's, look at the gadget I have now, have you got it….kind of thing…… This
all took place to segue what was happening without anyone knowing, while they were simply trying to have somewhat of a rewarding life: also, defined
for them by media: girls don't date guys who don't make a certain amount of money, have a bright future, evidenced by the right gadgets, cars,
connections, etc….all signs of "up and coming."
I should mention here that this was alluded to by Pres. Bill Clinton in the bridge to the future that information technologies would be….as NAFTA
came to be on his watch. He forecast that this county would become one of information technology, and not so much the durable goods industries,
knowing that the labor that bolsters these industries is more readily and cheaply available in other countries. This was the bridge to the future he
mentioned, and warned that vast retraining of the American workforce to adjust would have to happen and in the interim, a whole generation was at
risk, for changes such as these are not simple, take time, and lives will be economically compromised in the process.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes other things subtly happened. No more Maytag companies building a too good product needing little servicing and lasting
forever. That brought along with it a burgeoning workforce not justifying the cost to keep them around. So products had to become more dispensable,
and ergo, the workforce, as well. Get rid of them before they attain the forty hour work week, qualify for benefits, 401 k's , medical insurance,
etc., all a part of expensive overhead. The products became more temporary, and so did the worker, at that point, while we were being convinced
through social media and culture this was cool, appropriate. Not to mention our chief forms of entertainment surely reinforce a smaller attention
span, reinforce pleasure seeking, ADHD and the need and desire to have less commitments, simply out of boredom, but couched in an attitude of
challenging oneself more often. Why adhere to that 9-5, 40 yr. working in one place like your parents. They weren't happy. And we were all bored
with it. What was lost in this translation was a generation of older workers, and even younger ones, by virtue of geography and what their fathers had
done to support their families in those places where durable goods were the signet of the American Dream.
And then the internet: supposedly putting the power at the individual's fingertips, networking, etc. Change. Rapidly. Certainly appeals to our
ADHD mentality: Take the power back. Don't like your boss---move on. Find a company who will maximize your salary possibilities quickly if you
prove yourself quickly in a fast paced environment. And another feature: In sales, in America, if I fill my quota and go 20% over for two months,
then I am expected to exponentially not just keep that increase but provide a greater increase over the next four months---highly stressful, and
impossible to do.
Another thing the internet did was create a whole new way of doing business. Idea, middle man usually, linking vendors on one site, and selling to a
collected demographic more efficiently collected again by the collection of info from social media and sold to purveyors for just this purpose, to
create sites for selling specifically, with nothing but a little venture capital, a server, and voila……And all that attenuates in between,
inventing selling new things to new customers, all targeted in this way. And very little of this is through programming, though some is: not
disrespecting this, just showing how it worked. Take Facebook, for instance, a primary way of collected personal info for demographics designed for
banner ads (another business) to take you to sites that sell specifically to the demographic of what you may be interested in. And this works,
obviously. So, with nothing but a little money, and a good idea can get you billions, while teachers, the shapers of intellect, critical thinking,
and the future are still grossly underpaid, and perhaps, in this climate, that is not prepared vis a vis the old education process which has not
caught up to what is NOW, and has so quickly morphed from just twenty years ago.
Today, you could probably make more sitting at your comp spamming for companies and advertisements then many teachers make, whose jobs are to shape
intellect, attitudes, inform, inspire, teach the youth to critically think and be the harbingers of a "better" future for this country, so that they
will have a chance to solve the ever more intricate and multi faceted problems faced, and not just here, but everywhere, in this rapidly changing
world and the people who struggle to survive in it.
Sure, there are more "created" millionaires than even ten twenty years ago, but at what price to those who don't get that segue?
