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When we became slaves to our social security numbers. These numbers are now used for things entirely different than what they were intended for. How the heck did we allow credit reports to get attached to our social security numbers? We are now able to be controlled in terms of what we can purchase and how much money we can borrow by two "private" credit reporting companies that keep "credit files" on everyone through their social security number. Large corporations have made the federal government their lapdog. The citizens of this country are being hoodwinked by the biggest social engineering experiment ever to be implemented. And we blindly keep supporting Wal-Mart and other fascist companies thinking that they are providing such a valuable service.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
13,583 posts, read 15,649,867 times
Reputation: 14046
Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts
I disagree. People did not have mistrust for large corporations in the past. In other gererations, it was common for a person to work 40+ years for a corporation and then retire with a pension. The company won and the employee won.
Now, we mistrust them since they regularly pull the rug out from under their employees with no loyalty and no accountability.
And relocate jobs overseas, claiming to do so creates jobs in the U.S., though not one CEO or Neocon shill can provide an example of any job created in the U.S. as a result of sending jobs overseas.
^^ That's the same whining we heard when factory jobs went overseas. Then we went ahead and took over tech. Now tech is leaving...we whining again or are we gonna go find the next thing for us to be the leading edge?
How and why and when did this shift take place? Why did Americans lost their mistrust of the trusts? When did trusts come to epitomize "capitalism" in general, despite their overlooked anti-free-market characteristics?
The ball was set in motion at the precise moment when "standards" became a dirty word in our educational system.
And relocate jobs overseas, claiming to do so creates jobs in the U.S., though not one CEO or Neocon shill can provide an example of any job created in the U.S. as a result of sending jobs overseas.
Then, what or who DID create all those jobs stateside? In the 50's, one man working one job supported a household of 5 or 6. Now there are two full time jobs for a household of 3. The number of jobs, per capita, has more than doubled, maybe tripled. Where did all those jobs come from?
And what are they doing? Phone an 800-number, and there is nobody there to talk to you. Walk in a store, and there is nobody there to help you. Where are all those people who have jobs? Everything in my bank is done by computer, but there are more people in the bank "working" than there used to be. What do they do? A restaurant used to have a waitress and a short-order cook, and served a packed lunch crowd. Yesterday I was in Burger King, there were four customers and 8 people behind the counter, and they were all acting busy. What were they doing?
In the 50's, the mailman came twice a day, and the grocery store delivered, and the doctor made house calls, the gas station attendant pumped gas and wiped the window, and there was only one person per household who had a job. How did so much get done then. by so few people, without computers, and nothing gets done now?
How did so much get done then. by so few people, without computers, and nothing gets done now?
Well, that brings up an interesting issue with the nature of our delivery systems in the modern age. It used to be that there was a great deal of "laxity" in supply chains, because things had to be ordered in advance. The infrastructure wasn't always as comprehensive, so things sometimes perished or took damage during the delivery process.
Computers allowed industry to implement "just in time" delivery and manufacturing systems, which led to efficiency gains, but also reduced, to some extent, the number of humans required per capita to provide delivery and manufacturing to the population as a whole.
So, for example, you need fewer supply chain employees to provide apples to a population of 10 million today than you did in 1950, since we now have a nationwide network of freeways, refrigerated warehouses with nitrogen pumps that can store produce for up to a year, computer delivery systems, and instantaneous product order placement (small shopowners no longer need to fill out a weekly billet of orders - a single large supermarket merely sends its sales data to the corporate office, which can then adjust the stock at its distribution centers accordingly).
Now, in theory, this could benefit smaller businesses, since it means they can also tap into more efficient supply chains, and don't need to over-order products anymore in order to maintain a well-stocked shop.
In reality, since many of these supply chains are proprietary, and since volume orders bring bigger savings than smaller ones, much of the value of these gains flows to the largest market participants alone (and then in theory to the consumer via lower prices, but that brings up a whole new debate about wages and outsourcing...)
To add to some of the other points already made in this thread, I think there is a certain amount of dishonesty going on when we use a term like "good for business" to refer to all business, when in fact, if we look at many of the policies espoused under that banner, the term actually means good for large corporations. Small business benefits very little if at all.
For example, many municipalities will offer tax abatements to relocating companies that bring in a certain number of jobs, which excludes smaller businesses entirely.
There are certain fields of business where the laws are specifically written to preserve and advance the status of large market players by placing gratuitous and expensive barriers to entry against smaller ones.
Much of this happens because the American people have voluntarily ceded the task of lawmaking to large corporations, via legislators who take in large amounts of money through corporate "donations." We not only tolerate this arrangement, but we insist upon it - candidates without corporate backing rarely get many votes.
Tablemtn, your reply seemed to not answer my question, but rather to re-emphaize the conundrum of it. Why do more efficient systems require a much larger labor force?
It is interesting about the small business application, In the 1950s, nearly every hardware store in the US was locally owned and operated. Now, virtually all are just local outlets of a chain, managed by somebody from corporate. In the '50's, there were maybe 300 brewing companies in the US, supplying popular priced lagers. Now there are three. I trusted Chief Oshkosh to be responsive to my needs, but not Anheuser Busch. My sister baby-sat for the wife of the guy whose name was on the hardware store sigh. But who the hell is Tru-Value?
The OP question is oddly worded. Have Americans "lost their mistrust" for big corps?
I disagree. People did not have mistrust for large corporations in the past. In other gererations, it was common for a person to work 40+ years for a corporation and then retire with a pension. The company won and the employee won.
Now, we mistrust them since they regularly pull the rug out from under their employees with no loyalty and no accountability.
I agree with this 100%.
OP, I do not agree that it's a recent thing either--it's only recently that people aren't VERY loyal to their corporate place of work. Additionally, I disagree with your premise that people are somehow worse off from corporations now than in the past. In the past, children were working in mines, factories, etc. to make ends meet in a household. Many people were POOR. Not like today, when the "poor" have big screen tvs, snack on Doritos, and walk around with ipods. They were poor like what is now in the developing world. When welfare came around, many who desperately needed it would not touch it b/c they had too much pride to take a handout. People would look to themselves to lift themselves up and try to get out of poverty and dispair.
Now people blame everything on one of two things: government or big business. People aren't willing to take personal responsibility any more, they like to blame everything that isn't as they want on others, and they expect that they should be not just wealthy enough to own a very modest home and get their kids educated and fed (which would have been more than enough for most way back in the day), but now having a car, a middle class home, 2 tvs, a wii, and all the trappings of middle class life isn't enough.
They feel they should have MORE. And that it's the fault of big business and gov't that they don't.
People mistrust more now, are greedier now, and look to place blame more now.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
13,583 posts, read 15,649,867 times
Reputation: 14046
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Then, what or who DID create all those jobs stateside? In the 50's, one man working one job supported a household of 5 or 6. Now there are two full time jobs for a household of 3. The number of jobs, per capita, has more than doubled, maybe tripled. Where did all those jobs come from?
The creation of jobs in recent years has not kept pace with immigration. In the 50's, we were a population of less than 200,000. Now we're a population of 300,000, and growing at an accelerating rate. Additionally, the rate that jobs are being off-shored is accelerating, which is why underemployment and unemployment are higher now per capita than they've been in quite some time.
We're selling $1-3 billion in treasury bills to Asia every single day -- not the indication of a producer nation.
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