Conservatives and liberals are all so quick to plant their flags in the middle class when they come for your vote; but where are the major political parties when the middle class they love to pander to need help? A better question is where are you?
The cancerous paradox for the working class is when votes are needed they are catered to by brown nosing politicians who declare them the hard working backbone of the country. The second there is a hint that things are not so easy and they seek fair wages, respect, and protection from predatory business practices they’re branded ungrateful and greedy only seeking to extort a company through union. How dare they not take their diminished morsels and be grateful for the crumbs, they’re lucky to get any at all? They’re lucky to even have a job in this economy! Save the Twinkies!
If you think this way, congratulations you’re part of the problem
If you think this way, congratulations you’re part of the problem. This mentality allows the companies to retool the fundamentals of employment. To avoid providing healthcare, employers drop people to part time so they fly under any requirements. Workers are expected to take pay cuts, absorbing the financial costs of a company either from less sales or rising production costs. Turn and burn employment. Why should a company invest in a employee when it can replace them easily for less? The public, the target consumer, demands low prices and the company needs an ever expanding profit margin. Sustainability is not the goal, growth is, and in order to not turn off customers it sometimes comes out of the backs of the workers.
Its time for honesty on the part of the American consumer. Prices of goods have remained artificially low through cheap labor and low quality materials. Its hard to accept because we can’t imagine paying more out of our lightening pockets. This is because while cost of living has rose, income has not grown with it and we’ve fallen into a unconscious collective of acceptance. “Please God, I am grateful for my shitty job don’t let them take it away from me, I may not find another in this economy. I’m willing to increase my work output, take on extra responsibilities, cover my asshole bosses incompetence, and swallow the bitter unrest in me if you promise to help me stretch my pay thinner every week.”
The second a person dare speak out that life isn’t so peachy simply because they are employed, they’re demonized. Unions serve to prevent predatory business practices. Demonizing them is a propagandist side step to logic. A company board will argue that unions hurt a company overall, while it may be true it seems more the exception than the rule. If you fuck up at work there are consequences that directly affect you, often having a financial impact. Poor leadership in a company and incompetence still get paid at the administration level of a company. They even get bonuses. The topical example is Hostess. The company has torn through ceos, declared bankruptcy, significantly reduced workers pay, outright stolen from their wallets, raised the pay of its higher employees tripling the CEOs pay, and on the verge of the latest CEO leaving and filing bankruptcy for a second time, they presented workers with another unfair contract which when refused only served to scapegoat the workers as the cause.of the struggling company finally closing. Here’s a first hand acount from a former long time employer, it’s heartbreaking.It wasn’t bad business, the struggling economy, or the consequence of natural selection in the free market… it was those greedy workers who could no longer have the company rummaging through their pockets.
But wait! All is not lost. Americans have found the strength to raise its hand and petition the government to bail out hostess. Save the twinkies! Fuck you, kill yourself if you signed it. There are at least 3,500 people I hope seriously consider this. Even if it;s meant as a joke it’s at the expense of honest hard working Americans.I would be all for this if it meant saving those jobs by guaranteeing the revival of the company, not just throwing money into a pit. the Twinkie situation is a sample of what is malfunctioning in America. It’s Romney style vulturing. The brand will be probably be liquidated and another company will probably pick up making Twinkies as another work force is told to look elsewhere. How dare anyone ask for tax money out of those workers pockets to continue the abuse they’ve endured from a failing company. They did their jobs, if it fails it’s not for lack of effort on their part. Lets not continue to throw money at a company that can’t manage it. I’m all for saving things we need like an auto industry, but not junk food.
So now we come to the upcoming Walmart boycott. I’m not going to demonize Walmart, theres enough documentaries and reports about their shady dealings already. I refuse to beat a dead horse….but i’ll ask you to stop riding the one that continues to throws its riders. Walmart is a global company and its time to stop allowing it to mistreat your fellow citizens for your own convenience. Walmart is opening on Thanksgiving night to extend black Friday shopping hours, bleeding into what is supposed to be a family holiday. Strikes and boycotts are planned to bring attention to mistreatment of its workers. It’s about respect. It’s about people who want to work and contribute to a company and be treated and paid fairly.
Why Walmart? It is the largest private employer in the country. It is the biggest target, the symbol of some problems in the country today. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re a patriot because you already shop at Target. The truth is Walmart isn’t the only offender. Most big box retailers are making their employees work on the holiday so they can open early. Shop elsewhere all you want the cold truth is if its not cheap because some worker gets paid shit to make it here, it’s cheap because someone in a third world country probably got paid even less to make it for you. Change trickles up and if we will have any opportunity of bringing about change for the better, either for us at home or those abroad, it must come from the ground up. United we stand, divided we save 35 cents on a shrinking product as we allow each other to be sold out slowly.
What better time to stand by your fellow citizens, coworkers, family or friends; than on the biggest shopping day when you can send a message? Or are you of the mind that this Thanksgiving they should be thankful to have a job at all. If so, again, fuck you. If you still feel its necessary to continue to sell out your neighbors to save a few bucks on things you probably don’t need….*spoiler alert* Black Friday deals have become less and less lucrative over the years. That $300 laptop is probably $300 for a reason. You’re not being asked to boycott all of Black Friday, as nice as that would be. It’s easier to send a message when its focused at one target. United in a show of force, we can ask for change and begin to repair the problems that plague us as a whole.
-Rebel Will