Greetings from Buster in sunny downtown Boise. Thanks for joining us today. Well, if you read my blog last week, you are aware of the seriously shaky state of our economy here in the good old U.S. of A. During WWII, women were brought into the workforce due to the large number of men being drafted for military service. Due to the fact that we were unaffected by bombing or other military action right here at home, we were able to build up a large scale production effort and supply much of the Allied war operations. Imagine this, we also paid for the war effort – top marginal income tax rates were raised to over 90%. A few citizens feel we should revisit this fiscal mode to pay off the debt we’ve run up in the last decade by conducting our wars on credit!
Anyway, Rosie the Riveter and her sisters found there was a certain freedom and independence to be gained by working outside the home, and after the war women continued joining the world of work. Unfortunately, they have never been shown the same level of appreciation as men receive for their efforts. Even today, women’s compensation for doing the same jobs as men has not become equal. Also, while having two incomes in a family can allow for a few more luxuries and entertainment now and then, both parents working in a family can cause emotional strains on parents and children. The advent of two worker families helped usher in a prolonged period of inflation which resulted in it becoming necessary for two people to work to support a family without much money left over for savings.
Now, jobs have become scarce and if one of the two workers in a family is laid off, the family’s finances are strained to the breaking point. So, we have, in the course of the relatively short period of about 50 years, gone from an economy where a working man could support a wife and a couple of kids in a solid middle class lifestyle to one where both husband and wife are required to work to afford even a minimally comfortable manner of living.
In the meantime, much of the business of America has been consolidating into huge multi-national conglomerates led by enlightened monopolistic wanna-be lads (and a very few gals). These cheerful fellows can’t possibly manage these behemoths efficiently so they wind up getting fired, collecting outlandish severance packages, and then go elsewhere to repeat their spectacular performance. Of course, the government watchdogs who are supposed to sort of monitor these activities are understaffed and overwhelmed.
So, these fearless captains of industry have taken the easy road to bigger and better profits and shipped their work overseas where the total exploitation of workers is not only not illegal, but is completely commonplace. When some of the most extreme instances of worker abuse are reported in the news, the totally shocked CEO’s back here in the good Old U.S. of A. feign ignorance and proclaim strict new audit procedures to halt such atrocities. It is almost as if an unholy alliance of corporate chieftains and the malleable governments they buy and support have reinvented slavery!
If these business people were worth even a fraction of their exorbitant salaries, they would have found ways to make their U.S. factories efficient enough to keep the jobs here. Our political elite have been totally compliant in the devastation of the U.S. workplace as well and have exacerbated the problem by enacting tax legislation making it even more profitable to send the work to developing countries.
In summary, one could make the case that these reckless oligopolists of today by comparison make the old Robber Barons of the 19th century look like pikers. I’d have to say that the 99% protest movement has a valid point. We can only hope that they can find the leadership and methods to have their message heard.
Pappy says that nobody’s going to read my blog because I’m trying to lay the ugly facts about the state of our dear old U.S. of A. out there for everyone to see, and he says that people would rather keep their heads stuck in the sand. The old boy says he learned a long time ago as a young bean counter whose job was to tell the truth that most of the people don’t want to hear it! Ole pap says that figures don’t lie, but liars often figure!
Yikes, I can tell you for sure that just thinking about all these unpleasantries can give a little old Basset Hound a Great Dane sized headache!
I think I need another nap. Bye!
Buster
Buster's Two Cents 