Corporate Culture... of Fear/ Debit.

Pins and needles. is this what it feels like where you work? Are people around you getting let go for dumb and dumber reasons? How is the revenue flow going? You get the idea. So many work places are becoming so dehumanizing. Management can hold the specter of being fired or laid off over your head and this gives them even more power. "Can you stay an extra hour?" "Get the extra work done or I will find someone who can." I'm sorry but we are going to have to cut your hours." Similar statements (and far worse) are being made all around the country every day. Here in North Carolina, a so called right to work state, you can be fired on the spot with no explanation given. People feel they have no choice but to live like this pay check to pay check. Few people seem to like their jobs so, why do they stay? Most people will say things like family, responsibilities, bills and or to have money. What they are really saying is "I have debit." I owe so off to work I go.

Debit. It is so deep in American Culture. We go into debit for not only houses and cars but just plain stuff as well! Here, people will finance you a pet puppy! We have credit cards that are easy to use (too easy) to satisfy that new manufactured want or need. Check out this for example. By their ads, you would think it is the second coming! Watch the people lay their money down or credit! I recently paid off a credit card (my only one) and thought about closing it out. I had to deal with a flood of dire warnings about how it would hurt my credit rating. My credit rating. Somebody will one day look at this number and decide if I am a low risk. It may look good at the moment but if I dig myself in deep enough, this same yahoo will decide I am not so credit worthy. Pay off stuff on time, play the game, no good they will change the rules on you. Once you get into the debit trap, your managers (the ones who see you as an expense) have even more power over you.

If you are fortunate enough to still be working, GET OUT OF DEBIT! The less you owe, the more flexibility and control you will have. Debit is the new slavery. The laws are made by the credit card companies and banker types for their benefit, not yours. If you owe off to work you HAVE to go.

Buzz words...

How do we get people back to work in an economy that no longer makes things? The buzz words retrain, adjust and stimulate somehow come up short in our current situation. We have gone from an industrial power house to the new FIRE (finance insurance & real estate) economy. The link gives a so so explanation of it but you will get the idea. In my state, North Carolina, what do we do with thousands of poorly educated textile and furniture workers? Back 30 or 40 years ago a job at the local plant was today's government job. You had it made! The company took care of everything. Sure. you were never going to be rich but you always had a roof and a place to be 40 plus hours a week. Down turns came and went. Draw a little unemployment until things turn back around and repeat. Now how will it work? So many of these jobs are gone for good this time. Will the stimulus plan work? Sure, with that kind of money being thrown around a lot of people will go back to work doing something but for how long?  Where is the long term answer? The business people get on TV and warn us all of not going back to "protectionism" and "isolation" but these are not the same people trying to get by on a small weekly unemployment check. Sure, we cannot go back to the world of 200 years ago where we did our own thing  but do we have to compete with places with terrible human rights records, wages measured in pennies and no environmental regulations? Somehow this is supposed to benefit our economy and help create jobs here. Immigration is a great way to keep America healthy and dynamic. The way the powerful are using it today merely to drive down the cost of labor for their own short term financial benefit is making it much harder for people here to find work paying a living wage. In typical American fashion, many here blame the poor slobs fleeing terrible living conditions in their own country. It is divide and conquer at it's finest. They would be better served to follow the money where ever it leads... We hear a lot about change, another buzz word, lately. The current system here is broken and WILL change. Will we be able to manage the real change on the way?