BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
Pandora's Box
I've received such a huge response from unions, manager's (both active and retired), and postal workers from all over the country regarding last week's article on post office corruption and employee abuse (A Thief is a Thief - Even When They Work for the Government) that I need the time to sort through all of my email and documentation (Milton Allimadi of the Black Star News asked me if I had a staff to help me with the task. I could only laugh).
But with all of the contacts and pleas for help that I've received from postal employees all over the country, I'm beginning to recognize that what started out as an article, then a series, needs to become a crusade - and as a former postal employee myself it's a crusade that I'm more than happy to wage. The public has no idea how hard postal workers work to provide them with mail service - and much too often they have to fight their managers (who are rewarded exclusively on how much money they can save) to do it. But in the weeks to come we're going to lay it out for you.
There's more than one side to this story, however. While most postal employees are hard and dedicated workers, they're not completely blameless in the condition that they currently find themselves. I recognized long ago that the United States Postal Service was a microcosm of America as a whole. Just like the American people, the apathy of postal employees have allowed too many of the people who are suppose to be representing them to become more aligned with those who have a vested interest in their exploitation. Also like the American people, postal employees were much too willing to turn a blind eye while their fellow employees were being abused. Now they're all under the gun, and the very system that was supposed to protect their interest is geared to promote their exploitation. As a direct result, it's now going to take an extraordinary effort just to regain their rights, but the thrust of the coming articles will explain why it's incumbent upon the American people to help them do just that.
Thus, while I'm sorting through all of the information that I'm receiving I think it's appropriate to place what's going on in perspective. In order to do so I'm revisiting an article that I wrote several months ago regarding the attack on the American middle class, because it's important that we recognize that what's going on with Ms. Joann Snow is not just an assault on the rights of one postal worker. What's happening to this employee is actually an assault on America, and the American way of life as a whole. If we don't put a stop to it now, the business model that's currently victimizing Ms. Snow will eventually consume us all:
The Role of Poor, Minorities, and Middle Class in the New World Order
The phrase New World Order says it all. But in our blind naivete' and the belief that it can't happen here, the vast majority of American people believe the phrase refers to the reshuffling, in terms of importance, of the various nations around the world. We fail to understand that the change is much more profound than that. The new world order not only applies to a geo-political reshuffling among nations, but the reshuffling of the internal economic structure within individual nations as well.
That means that as the world moves from many separate national economies to one global economy the class structure of the various nations of the world must be adjusted to accommodate the new state of affairs. In turn, that means that the high standard of living enjoyed by the American middle class since WWII can no longer be sustained in an economy where many of America's competitors are paying their workers less per week than many of us spend on lunch per day. That accounts for why American jobs are being outsourced to other countries, and Walmart, one of the largest retail corporations in the world, has based its business model on purchasing most of its merchandise from China in order to undercut the price demands of its competitors.
Walmart is a microcosm of the revised American business strategy under the new world order. One can look at Walmart's business model, and the socioeconomic profile of its employees, and see exactly what direction American business, and our society, is headed as a whole.
Walmart's business strategy is to hire easily replaceable and low skilled employees who are at, or very near, the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. It then takes advantage of their precarious economic condition to squeezes every dime of profit out of the company's operation . They aggressively fight organized labor to hold down employee wages and benefits, and deny their employees anything approaching affordable health-care. That, essentially, is the American business model under the new world order.
Business is no longer a friend of the American people. Where business was once our partner in a symbiotic relationship, it is now a predator to consumers and employees alike. Our parents could pull into a gas station and a guy in a white shirt and bow tie would run out to check their oil and water, then put air in their tires as he pumped twenty-two cents a gallon gas into their tanks. I know - gas is no longer that cheap, but what happen to the service?
It was once considered unseemly for a woman to have to pump gas - I don't think my mother even knew how to operate a gas pump. But now it's become so routine in our culture that if you're a passenger it's no longer politically correct to even offer to pump the gas for a woman ( What, you think because I'm a woman I don't have sense enough to squeeze a nozzle? ). Now my mother would not only have to pump her own gas, check her own oil, and put air in her tires, but they'd make her pay extra for the air. Think about that. They charge us for air!
The reason for that is greed. When the United States had a thriving industrial economy one class complimented the other. Labor was well paid and given the security of knowing that they had a job for life, so they had the confidence to purchased goods that the corporations produced. That allowed the companies that sold the goods to prosper, to the benefit of the investor class.
But now, in a global market, in order to remain competitive with countries that pay their workers just above slave wages, corporations have to squeeze every penny and every concession out of the labor class that they can get. And since the heads of these corporations must make huge profits to justify their unconscionably oversized bonuses, they prey on their workers by undercutting their benefits and outsourcing the very jobs that the economy is dependent upon to sustain the corporation, and the nation. But since these corporate heads live from bonus to bonus and only think about themselves, they never stop to consider the negative impact of their irresponsible behavior on the economic viability of the nation.
So when Wall Street or the Fed announces that the economy is thriving, they're not talking about the American economy as a whole - they're only talking about the monetary return of the investor class. A thriving economy means they're successfully squeezing the American worker to the limit, and gouging the consumer of every penny that he can afford to part with - and a few that he can't. It is that kind of greed and irresponsibility that led to last year's economic disaster, and nothing has changed.
In the global economy of the new world order, corporations no longer need the American worker to sustain their profits. Now that they can outsource their labor, and purchase and sell their goods overseas, the American worker is no longer a partner in the corporation's viability. the worker has now been relegated to the status of field hand. The only time they need us is when they want to tap the treasury for our tax dollars to pay off their gambling debts.
And this is the very same group that the Republicans and Liebercrats are trying to protect. This is also the group that the wingnuts are fighting so hard to keep between them and their doctors. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the Republicans are protecting the very same insurance industry that victimized us in Wall Street bailout. They took our money, now they're using it to block affordable healthcare for the American people.
They were paid billions of dollars by large corporations to cover corporate gambling debts. AIG accepted corporate funds, knowing that they didn't have the resources to cover the debts if the corporations got into trouble. Then when the corporations rolled snake eyes, AIG simply turned to the American people and said, you've got to cover these debts, or else. We and our clients are much too big to be allowed to fail.
An article in Wikipedia points out that The AIG Financial Products division headed by Joseph Cassano, in London, had entered into credit default swaps to insure $441 billion worth of securities originally rated AAA. Of those securities, $57.8 billion were structured debt securities backed by subprime loans. So not only did the American taxpayer pay off this insurance company's debt, but we paid off a debt that originated in another country.
Now your money is being taken once again, but this time, they're taking YOUR money, to pay YOUR representative, to block an attempt by President Obama to stop them from cutting YOUR throat in a time of crisis, just like they did the corporations on Wall Street. But there's one very big difference - you and you're family are not too big to fail, so without the benefit of a robust healthcare reform, you're simply gonna bite the dust - and with the corrupt and able assistance of many of your very own representatives.
I'm sure that many are going to call me a crazy socialist, and continue to tear up as Boehner, Lieberman, and the various other demagogues shuffle out and look into the camera with the solemnity of the pope. But just remember, when they tell you that they're fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, the real truth is so glaring that sometimes it slips through in some of the most unlikely places. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said the following:
So this may be an audacious suggestion, but I would suggest we put aside the health care debate until next year, the same way we put cap and trade and climate change and talk now about the essentials, the war and money.
So there you have it - war and money. That just about sums up your place in the new world order.
Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.