Rally for the cause... of making rich people richer...
I am no financial analyst. I can hardly manage my family's finances and I think any letter about my 401K is written in Spanish. So I might not know the real reason why the stock market today closed at 2.1% increase and has been rallying for the last couple of weeks - but I have a theory....
My theory is that in the past 1-2 years companies (small and large) have improved their profits by laying off people. People who maybe have been working for 25+ years and making big salaries. People who have been working for a couple of years and were considered expendable. Companies have also not been hiring and there are salary freezes across the board. So there is a huge saving for companies since their payrolls and the benefits that they have to pay out have been shrinking. The lost of these workers haven't impacted there business in any short term way because the workers that remain are so scared of losing their jobs that they take on the responsibilities of those who have been laid off. And they do so without complaining or (god forbid) asking for more money. Those of us who still have jobs and strong work ethics say "thank you sir, can I have another." No demands, no requests, no back talk.
Sure lay off the assistant, lay off the manager, leave the mid-level worker who will step it up (and step it down if need be) and work more hours, work harder, get more stressed out, and have no hope for relief. If the company is functioning without the extra staff, well... why should it ever hire more people?
Wall Street may have recovered, but Main Street has not. Wall Street makes money for the same people who are making money on the back's of the working and middle class. Their companies grow, their portfolios grow. Then they groan when the idea of taxing them more comes up. Meanwhile the employees that are left behind to pick up the slack and take over for where their less fortunate collegues left off are unhappy, under appreciated, and eventually they are going to burn out. They are hardly making enough to get by, to pay the bills. They aren't getting raises "because of the economy." But their cost of living continues to increase. So they aren't uping their consumer spending. And the people who are unemployed and staying unemployed because companies won't hire since "they are doing just fine" aren't spending money either.
Unfortunately this blog is only good for pointing out a theory I got, no solutions know here... Part of me thinks that the only way out of this slump, is to work even harder--- make even more money for the company--- then maybe, just maybe they will hire more help. But then we will still be dividing up more work among fewer people. Greed is a bitch.
I am no financial analyst. I can hardly manage my family's finances and I think any letter about my 401K is written in Spanish. So I might not know the real reason why the stock market today closed at 2.1% increase and has been rallying for the last couple of weeks - but I have a theory....
My theory is that in the past 1-2 years companies (small and large) have improved their profits by laying off people. People who maybe have been working for 25+ years and making big salaries. People who have been working for a couple of years and were considered expendable. Companies have also not been hiring and there are salary freezes across the board. So there is a huge saving for companies since their payrolls and the benefits that they have to pay out have been shrinking. The lost of these workers haven't impacted there business in any short term way because the workers that remain are so scared of losing their jobs that they take on the responsibilities of those who have been laid off. And they do so without complaining or (god forbid) asking for more money. Those of us who still have jobs and strong work ethics say "thank you sir, can I have another." No demands, no requests, no back talk.
Sure lay off the assistant, lay off the manager, leave the mid-level worker who will step it up (and step it down if need be) and work more hours, work harder, get more stressed out, and have no hope for relief. If the company is functioning without the extra staff, well... why should it ever hire more people?
Wall Street may have recovered, but Main Street has not. Wall Street makes money for the same people who are making money on the back's of the working and middle class. Their companies grow, their portfolios grow. Then they groan when the idea of taxing them more comes up. Meanwhile the employees that are left behind to pick up the slack and take over for where their less fortunate collegues left off are unhappy, under appreciated, and eventually they are going to burn out. They are hardly making enough to get by, to pay the bills. They aren't getting raises "because of the economy." But their cost of living continues to increase. So they aren't uping their consumer spending. And the people who are unemployed and staying unemployed because companies won't hire since "they are doing just fine" aren't spending money either.
Unfortunately this blog is only good for pointing out a theory I got, no solutions know here... Part of me thinks that the only way out of this slump, is to work even harder--- make even more money for the company--- then maybe, just maybe they will hire more help. But then we will still be dividing up more work among fewer people. Greed is a bitch.
posted by Alaina @ 2:00 PM
2 Comments:
At 10:16 AM,
Anonymous said…
AGRREEEEEE
At 9:55 AM,
Unseelie said…
Agree with 90%, but realize that no company will ever rehire to pre-bust levels because they have learned that they can get by - and hey! profit! - with less staff. Which means that those who work have a hellish time, work becomes a frantic scramble to meet unrealistic workloads and people burn-out. This is fine with the company, because there are hundreds applying for every job. People become grist of the mill while shareholders enjoy profits.
A corner mom & pop won't get to this state, sure, but they may close because people prefer to buy from big chains now, someone whose name they recognize from TV. So the small shops/stores/factories will struggle against the unfair advantage of multi-nationals which already have buckets of money and the ability to destroy their minions in a never-ending churn.
Yay, corporatocracy!
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