Let's start with the worst offender and definitive cock sucker of the week: Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn. Workers went on strike this week at 33 Hostess factories to get better wages. Rayburn responded by liquidating the company and now, no more Twinkies for anyone. The message boards are livid against the "awful" unions for allowing this to happen. The naysayers have complained, " We haven't got a raise in ages, why should you." So instead of bitching to your boss that you haven't gotten a raise since Ford was in office, the douchebags out there are whining about people who deserve theirs and are fighting for it.
Here's the other problem with the above statement: It's not true. None of it. Just like the other rich fuckwads this week like Papa John CEO John Shnatter or energy boss Robert Murray, who instead of taking pay cuts to their bloated salaries, laid off workers, cut salaries and stopped pensions, the executives at Hostess have taken HUGE raises while the company was going under. The strike was called when Hostess imposed cuts to employee's pension plans while giving the CEO a 300% raise, from $750,000 to $2,550,00. They also gave at least nine executives massive pay increases doubling their salaries. Has anyone EVER working as a low level employee gotten a raise that doubled their salary? Unlikely. All this while Hostess was $2 billion in debt. Shouldn't CEO pay be the first thing to get cut? Not in today's "me first" mentality.
Worse, many of the closings where already going to happen in places like St. Louis, as verified by the mayor who was told the plant would close months ago. The CEO is using the strike as cover for shut downs that were already in play. What an ass. As many as twelve other plants were also scheduled to be shuttered. What has happened here is a perfectly legal way to Union bust. They liquidate the company, have some white knight come in and buy up the product under a new charter, and voila, no more unions at Hostess. They will hire some back at a fraction of the original salary, like the auto unions did, and the economy will fall even further as people have less and less money to spend. Only now is the average worker starting to see the China type of employee protection we get.
This is why we need unions and why all those out there complaining about them need to get a clue and see how quick your job can be in jeopardy. They may have not been able to protect the workers at Hostess from a ruthless CEO, but a lot do and they can't fire all of us lest they want to see rich people's head on a stick. Someone should really be looking for Mr. Rayburn and explain to him in the same ruthless terms over how unhappy they are with their severance package. I'd serve his back to him with a spiked dildo, some motor oil and a funnel.
Back in my column for a record third time is Scott DesJarlais who could quite be the most despicable person to somehow win re-election. It has come out that Mr. Family Value's Man from Tennessee is even more a dirt bag than was previously known. Turns out that the violently anti-abortion Representative not only forced his mistress to have one, but his wife at the time to have two. Not only that, he appears to be serial philanderer with many of his patients coming forward to claim they slept with each other. Oh and he's a drug dealer who uses his probably soon to be revoked medical license to give pills to his lovers. Yet, all this was known and he still won by double digits over his democratic opponent. That's is some true stupidity in Tennessee that may be the most backward hick state we have. My friend Heather thinks so since moving down there who calls the locals a bunch of one toothed hill billies with one brain cell between them. Considering they voted for this ass AGAIN, I'm inclined to believe her.
Mitt Romney is getting raked over the coals for his statement that Obama won because he promised big gifts to blacks, Hispanics and young people. Some GOP leaders were not happy with that statement as it seems to blame the public for his loss and not his staggering incompetence. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal lashed out at Romney and McCain for making dumb statements and some pundits like Bill Kristol are starting to wonder what is going on with the GOP. By the way McCain is in trouble for statements made about Susan Rice and the Benghazi nonsense that no one cares about. Shit happens, move on.
As all this crap occurs here, along with the salacious Real Housewives of the Pentagon playing out, Gaza is in flames as war has broken out in region where bad things can occur. Egypt is poised to enter, Hezbollah waits for orders and Israel is mobilizing troops and hardware on the Gaza border. Fun. Hamas brought this on themselves by firing rockets into Israel instead of, I don't know, negotiating a fucking peace already. Hamas has a lot in common with the GOP. Neither is willing to compromise one iota and is willing to burn the country down as result. A full scale war looks imminent.
Hamas is showing pictures of dead kids and fat people. Boo Hoo. Don't put rocket launchers in school yards and stuff like that won't happen. They are trying to play to public sentiment which is not going to work. Israel will defend itself and the fact they haven't killed every man and women and child in Gaza yet is a testament to their dedication. The problem here isn't Hamas which is woefully undermatched, but countries like Lebanon or Egypt getting involved which could tip the scales and the chances for a greater war. Jordan won't intervene and Syria has it's own problems right now so at least Israel doesn't have to worry about them right now.
Rockets are falling in Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem as I write this. Do not forget that one man could do something stupid at this point and start a world war, like Gavic Princip did by assassinating Archduke Ferdinand. He was just some flunky who happened to be at the right place and the right time and by killing one man, two world wars started and changed the course of human history. All the pieces are in place for that to happen again. Let us hope it doesn't because the next world war will also most likely be our last.
We need to start fighting back against our CEO overlords who wield way too much power over us. We need to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour. We need an end to right to work laws. We need rich people to start forking over some money from their bloated salaries. We need media to do their job. We need people to get involved. I am doing my part here. The question is dear readers, what are you doing to change the world, where ever you might be? If you don't start soon, it won't matter anymore.
"We need to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour."
ReplyDeleteUmm, maybe. It would need some conditions. While I agree many corporations could afford to do that, many small businesses would get killed. I don't see any reason that a teenage high school or college student needs to be guaranteed $12/hr. It would absolutely result in even more layoffs.
Payroll is the biggest controllable expense for most companies and this type of pay guarantee would cause a lot of problems.
Now, if you are saying that a 40 hr/wk full time employee be guaranteed $12/hr, maybe I could stand that. Maybe. But I don't like the govt telling me as a business owner how much I need to pay my employees.
Ever hear of merit pay, you know, pay for performance.
I own a small biz and only have part time employees, Most of the young people I have seen in 30+ yrs of managing businesses are not even worth todays minimum wage. They have no work ethic and are poorly educated. Many of then cant spell and only care about themselves. They deserve maybe $5/hr at most but I am forced to pay them a minimum wage higher than that.
I didnt graduate college, but when I was young I worked my ass off and always looked out for my employers best interests. I got promoted and pay raises constantly all throughout my career. I finally got sick of bosses telling me what to do and started my own biz. Yes, I had to sacrifice some things, save some money, but thats life. I had goals and worked hard to achieve them. Most people dont do that anymore. Thats their prob.
If todays employee would work their ass off and make every effort to look out for their employer they would see more success. Instead, they think the deserve good pay and bene's, but why? One needs to accomplish something before they get rewarded for it, not be rewarded just for showing up for work most of the time.
People arent entitled to anything. They are only entitled to what they earn through hard work and dedication.
Try owning a business and see if it doesn't effect some of your opinions. If someone wants something bad enough they should learn how to prioritize.
This isnt a simple issue, I understand lot of the points you make, but I wont agree with telling businesses they must pay their employees a minimum amount, unless perhaps they are achieving a net profit over a certain $$ amount.
I also hate the big business criminals. Any company making 100's of millions should absolutely take care of their employees. But there are unintended consequences that will happen with some of the things you propose.
And I still enjoy your rants.
Thank you for your intellegent and well phrased comments. I agree with you on just about everything you have said. The minumum wage should be ajusted to reflect age, company size, etc. But with a company like Hostess, their workers should be getting paid better than they are and to have the top level guys get huge pay raises while claiming poverty is beyond belief.
ReplyDeleteAnd while some of today's youths are wastes of space, I meet quite a few others that are highly intellegent and work very hard to achieve what they can. It also may depend on where you live as to what kind of workers you may get. If your local public school system is nothing more than a cattle farm, the people that you get are not going to be adequate to do anything of any importance. Add to that the fact that we coddle today's youth and convince them they are all destined for greatness and you can get a lot of attitude that is not earned.
Corporations are the key here, not small businesses. I have been a high level executive for several small and medium sized companies in the past and know the kind of troubles that result from bad workers, government interfernce (which was one of the reason one company I worked for went under) and terrible leadership. I have seen it all.
I too grew tired of working for other people and now just write out of my house. I may be much poorer but I am much much happier.
As for telling people what they have to pay their workers, the corporations have brought that on themselves. We have lost wages since 1970. We have not kept up with inflation. As a result, the country is dying. Either corportaions have to give the middle class a much needed raise or the government must force them to because they are unlikley to do this unless they are made to.
Every problem we face today is because wages have stagnated for way too long. The average salary today should be around $80,000 per year. It's $26,000 and falling. I am open to suggestions as to how to make companies give their workers a raise but the only avenue I see is rasing the minumim wage or making a law that prohibits the CEO of any company from making more than a set percentage of it's lowest paid worker.
Unions are dying and any barganing power we once had is gone. We will continue to see jobs lost and wages decline until we become a third world nation and what then? Unemployment will be at least 50%, poverty will be the new norm and a police state will make sure no one says boo. We have to fight for better pay especially among those that can easily afford it because the alternative is a police state where working for China level wages may be our future.