Tuesday, February 22, 2011

American Workforce Makeover Needed

The Daily Show excoriates the codependent relation between American Corporations and their labor forces, using rapier wit and poignant analogies, skewering the Republicans on their own words.  Link here.  I watched this twice last night, and twice again today.  Emmy worthy, at Camera 3.
"You don't understand why Corporations don't look at you the same way they did in the good ole days, before collective bargaining allowed you to limit, when and where they could look at you."
"You thought you were doing the things necessary, to raise a middle class, together, with the corporations, but when you were home on 'Weekends', or "Federally Mandated Holidays' or having your 'Dental Work', your Corporation was off banging Mexico, India, or China's industries."
"And now you wann'em back"
"Well it's not like he hasn't been telling you what turns him on"
- Cut to failed former CEO of HP Carly Fiorina who drove that company into the ground before the board threw her out, claiming that "35% tax on business when the world averages 18%" - REGARDLESS of the FACT that MOST of the RICHEST US Corporations pay NO FEDERAL TAX (in 2008, and again in 2009). GRRRRRRRR
"Who wants 35, when they can get 18??"

"In the old days, American worker, you were wild and exciting.  You'd do it all day, and all night, in every room, even the ones with no fire exits."
"But now, when he rolls over, and announces he wants to start drilling, you're all 'Oh no mister, not here, not without protection!' "
- Cut to Headline News covering the BP spill's idiotic and perfectly avoidable mistakes -
"But when I wear a blowout preventer, I barely feel like I am drilling"
"And the constant nagging!!!!"
- cut to MSNBC and Fox News commentators scolding big business for laissez-faire evil -
"India and China understand Corporations.  India and China let them be themselves"
"Corporation wants to come home late, wreaking of DDT and salmonella, and go wake the kids up, because it's time for their shift, that's cool! They just want them to be happy!"
Look, you knew!! ...they were sociopaths when you married them."
"Not that there haven't been hints, of what you might do, to create a more welcome corporate atmosphere"
- cut to Kneeling Cavuto and a corporate sycophantic berating unions, and another Fox fool berating  Wisconsin teachers for making $51K a year (yeah, with BAs or Masters degrees or PhDs, how despicable!) 
(whispered) "But-cha gotta want it"

"Pretty nice, Professor Trump"
 "So American workers, Slim Down! Work More! For Less! In Sh*tty Conditions!"
"And I'm not talking 1/2 pay Saturdays and partial Dental."
"Ohh the Corporations are saying you're looking good, and they really appreciate the effort, but the Truth is, if you want First World Corporations to think you're attractive, you're gonna need a Third World Makeover."
- cut to picture of Mexican family outside a double wide
"This family does your job for 70 pesos a week."

2 comments:

  1. There are a couple big things that should bother people here:

    (1) Corporate tax avoidance
    This is a big deal in the UK, with numerous bonafide protests, both large and small

    Anyone grumbling about this in the US?

    (2) Massively Asymmetric Privileges of Globalization Between Corporations and Labor
    I've been harping on this for a long time, and at the risk of repeating myself: Corporations can freely move capital almost anywhere in the world they choose. Corporations can freely buy labor almost anywhere in the world they choose. Labor, however, cannot freely move. HUGE restrictions on movement of labor. There while US companies might outsource, say, engineering to India at the drop of a hat, US engineers can't up and move to India in search of jobs. And there are plenty of qualified engineers in the US (especially younger ones) who would be up for a few years in India, at local wages, to further their careers, but it's not an option. Governments shackle individuals but welcome corporate movement, even away from their own countries, with blessings and assistance.

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  2. My anarchist friend JoeM in San Francisco has been saying the same thing for years. He's got a degree in Economics from UC =) ...if you really want a "free market" then LABOR needs to be free to move as well.

    Hell, in China, you can't even move BETWEEN PROVINCES without the required government authorized papers. So Very Free.

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