Wake Up Sheeple!

Here is the simple formula:

Use lowered profits as an excuse to lay off a few people. Remind daily the remaining workers that they are lucky to still have a job. Remind them that 'things are rough out there.'

Continue to use lowered profits (a simple threat of just being in business...almost every business deals with lowered profits at some point) to take away health care benefits and cut back on retirement programs: "Things are tough. If we want to stay in business, we're going to have to cut back." ...the 'we' that is cutting back is, of course, you...the worker.

Remind the workers that with less employees, people are going to have to work twice as hard if they want to see the profits get back up where there pay freeze is lifted. Also, you cannot take vacation right now because there aren't enough employees to make up for the two jobs that you're working.

If you're brave, go for pay cuts across the board. Remind the workers than it's better than 'nothing at all. You're still very lucky to have a job in 'this economic environment.' Now is a good time to remind workers how many people are losing their homes and investments right now. They sure are lucky.

After you've cut back every conceivable program that helps the worker or helps to increase his/her wages/benefits, watch the corporate profits rise. And not just rise, but rise to record levels.

Maintain current crew that was cut back dramatically, keep the pay freeze, keep the cut wages make sure people are doing twice the work for less pay and less benefits.

Bottom line: record profits.

How do people not realize this is exactly what happened in most American businesses? They're still working and paying like the recession is still in full ring, yet they're pulling in more profits than ever before.

WHY? Because the workers took the hit. Like they always do. They got shat on and continued to show up at work every morning, talking about how goddamn lucky they were to not be on the layoff list. SO LUCKY! Lucky you. You get to do the jobs of your laid of co-workers, work much more than usual and get compensated much, much less. BUT THE PROFITS ARE UP. Your amazing job is SECURE. For now.

And that's how it's done. Yes, the part-time issue is a big one but it gets thrown into this cycle and approach by business. They know exactly what they're doing and they're laughing all the way to the bank while most working class can still barely keep their heads above water.

And I have a secret for you. PSST...listen up. Wages are like POWER. Those in charge very often take it *but they never, ever give it back.

That's one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Take the Patriot Act for example. During that time when (according to Bush) everyone wanted to kill us because they hated our 'freedoms,' they felt it was appropriate to pass a shit load new laws that restricted your freedom (I suppose) in order to give the terrorists what they wanted: A country with less freedom (again, according to Bush and Co.)

After Bin Laden was killed and things simmered down, the NHS and homeland security was fattened up, they never gave back the rights you used to have. And they never will. Because if you look at the history of government, they take rights away. They pass more laws..think of it as a linear path that moves forward with time. As time goes on, so do restrictions on liberty and freedom.

And that's what businesses do (at least larger corporations) as you give up things like health benefits and retirement benefits and accept lower wages and less security, those are things that are gone for good. Because I can only think of a handful of companies that have ever willingly given up anything to employees.

What is the answer? In a word: Unions.

Period. Organization and solidarity will change things if Americans have the brains and balls to embrace standing up together and saying 'no' for a change instead of constantly saying 'yes' and acting like they have battered woman syndrome. Or maybe it's Stockholm Syndrome where the captive starts to have feelings for the captor.

Either way, things have to change and they have to change soon.

Even if everything changed tomorrow and the minimum wage went up and that created a ripple effect that caused everyone's salaries and wages to go up, they started to invest in more health care benefits, offered you some more vacation time or sick days...these are entities that still went 30 years fattening their wallets and profits on your backs.

A lot of the larger employers (McDonald's, Walmart, AT&T) they have amassed enough profits in that time of wringing out workers that they'll never be hurt. Ever. The Walton family has more wealth than the entire lower 40% of Americans combined and yet they still won't offer basic human kindness to their employees. They're treated like a necessary evil and they're treated like burdens most of the time.

And yet, the truth is that if you work at Walmart or McDonald's and someone tries to convince you that your job isn't important, rest assured that you would NOT be in that store if your presence wasn't completely necessary. You are an important part of the company regardless of how belittled your job is or you have been on the job. They would cut your position in a second without any thought if they thought they could keep running without you. That's what they do: eliminate every single unnecessary position (without regard to customers, employers, etc) that they can possibly still operate with.

Time to stand up. Time for some strength, some wisdom, some courage and time for people to get informed. Time for solidarity and unions...they are the only way. If you're opposed to those things, I'm guessing it's because you've never studied unions are unaware that they created the middle class (which was why the United States was such an envy of other nations for 30 years).

If you're opposed to the idea of unionization, then get comfortable. Your post in life will never change, your life will always be a struggle to keep your head above water and you will most definitely never be able to retire. Not when you're 65, not when you're 75, not when you're 90. You will never save enough wealth to be able to not work.

And that's bullshit. You sell your most precious resource (your time and your health) for pennies on the dollar and you'll never be able to enjoy the fruits of all that constant work. Meanwhile, the higher ups at the companies will amass enough money and assets to last them for 20 lifetimes and then some.

America isn't a fair nation anymore and the corporations are running the government and your interests and your family's interests are the last thing they have in mind.

PROFITS OVER PEOPLE in the new America. You are, officially, worth more dead than you are alive, sadly. And what kind of fucking country gets behind that idea? Not to mention this idea that health care should be a luxury that only the rich should be able to obtain.

If you work full time in any capacity, by God, you fucking deserve to be able to go to the hospital without the threat of bankruptcy if you get sick. You should be able to end up in a car accident without losing your goddamn house in the process.

Wake up. This is your lives and your children's lives and well being we're talking about. Can you not see how much you've been fleeced and how much has been taken of you, constantly asked of you while the ultra wealthy and corporations always make sure that you and your family take the hit when things go bad? And when things go well, you never get to partake in any of the success unless you're a stockholder and that's a position that very few American workers are a part of.

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