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April 9th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Where to begin?
As I said on the radio on Monday Since November’s stock market tank job my company’s sales also went in the toilet almost world wide. As of last month in a move to avoid a layoff a memo was sent out stating the there would no longer be a 401K match for anyone, there is a wage freeze, a hiring freeze and oh yeah a 10% pay cut from the CEO on down. It will last as long as it needs to. I have no say and no amount of pissing or moaning will change any of it. The sales weasels errrr managers think that the second half of the year should trend up so we got that going for us…. Which is nice. But what are they supposed to say? The economy will get worse and then we’re gonna have to let people go?
This isn’t a fly by night operation- some of you reading this use our products actually you ALL do since you have running water and the City of Lowell is one of my accounts. We’ve been around since 1884 and our workforce is all American stateside. So what am I to do? Like most we’ve made cutbacks at home as I’ve said before on the radio unlike our esteemed government I don’t have the luxury of raising taxes on the squirrels and birds that live on my property. So to offset the loss of the 10% I can get another “part time” job, while that’s as much fun as getting kicked in the crotch if I want a roof over my head things need to be done.
So my question to all of you is this- at what point do you think the populous gets sick and tired of being sick and tired and takes to the streets? Personally I can’t wait. As a society we’ve become weak, soft, and far to interested in instant gratification. I’m willing to make sacrifices so I know I’ll be fine. I’m going to enjoy the jolt and shakeup this depression that’s coming next year will provide us.
As for the pirates in Somalia- The USS Bainbridge is there now, get it close enough to let SEAL snipers take the four of them out at once and make sure that video is shown world wide. We need to show that we’re not to be trifled with. Let us not forget these are our countrymen who were on a HUMANITARIAN AID run. Or if option A) is too much for you to handle because you fear the Captain getting killed while the Navy SEALs are doing what they do best option B) is pay the ransom and send a clear message that Americans roll over and pay lets keep this crap up. People do what they do for as long as they can get away with it……… Once they can’t they don’t.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:52 am
You are so wrong I don’t even know where to begin. Honestly, your type of rhetoric scares me.
Just because it’s happening to you too doesn’t mean it’s not an assault on working people by the very wealthy. It’s actually proof that I am right, and this is one damned slippery slope.
On the other point, you make a dumb assumption. I didn’t say ANYthing about how I feel about what’s going on off the coast of Somalia - just that the situation there feels sort of parallel to what’s happening to the American worker. I was using a sort of morbid analogy. I agree on the policing of the waters where the pirates operate. That has gotten way too friggin out of hand there…but notice, it took the first pirate attack on an American ship to get us to give a shit. Please don’t assume you know where I stand when I haven’t said where I stand.
In fact, I agree also that the ransoming has to STOP - after all, look where paying off people who take hostages got us when Reagan did it - the expansion of terrorism (aka OUR allies and people we trained against the Russians).
April 9th, 2009 at 9:28 am
You are paranoid. I gave my thoughts on your post yes but they weren’t aimed at you specifically- your at defcon 5 can I get you at around a 1 please? You really have made outrage a cottage industry haven’t you? I wasn’t talking to you specifically last time but I am now. I asked open ended questions to all eyes that hit this blog and shared my personal experiences here. That’s my honest to god life’s situation right now. Not a story. Is there class warfare you bet. Where am I wrong? Do you think there won’t be some type of public event that DOESN’T degenerate into rioting? You know there will be. Do you think that people AREN’T looking for ways to supplement their lost income? I just said I was. Do you think this recession I see coming WON’T be a wake up call and a jolt to people that they need to make some sacrifices? You know it will. So I’m right on all three points. How am I wrong? The only difference here is my company won’t get bailed out by the government we’ll either sink or swim. The Globe might get bailed out and it shouldn’t. If you have declining sales and a crap business model you SHOULD go out of business. Why should we prop up a crap business or business model? Rewarding failure is counter productive. How many industries do we want the government to save?
I honestly don’t care how you or anyone else feels about what’s going on off the coast of Somalia. The only opinion that matters now on how this is handled is who makes the call on to pay the money or call in the SEAL team. Maybe you didn’t care before but I did. Like them or not Jay Severin, Dennis and Callahan on WEEI, and Glenn Back were both talking about this months ago. Saying that until it happens to an American ship no one will care and they were right. I know because I watch/listen to them (among a slew of others both left and right leaning so save that cheap shot please) both as a part of my daily rotation of news/infotainment. I’ve been talking about pirates personally at family functions and work for months when it first broke saying how stupid people were for caving in to these scumbags.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Then you need to learn how to write. There was nothing in your comment to suggest a general reaction to general idea, and since you were responding to a post, anyone would assume you were addressing said person. You were not clear. Let me quote you:
“Or if option A) is too much for you to handle because you fear the Captain getting killed while the Navy SEALs are doing what they do best option B) is pay the ransom and send a clear message that Americans roll over and pay lets keep this crap up.”
“You,” “you fear,” gee, what the hell was I supposed to think, huh? Give me a break.
If rioting is your answer to fixing the problem, then again, I say, your rhetoric - and that of the rest of the far right - scares me. That’s not the answer and it doesn’t have to be.
“If you have declining sales and a crap business model you SHOULD go out of business.”
This has NOTHING to do with a crap business model, and while I agree that there are serious issues on the way tradmed works, this is about how the parent company, NYTimes, is probably foisting ITS debt on the Globe, rather than putting that debt on its own books…so OF COURSE the Globe comes off as not profitable. You would be too if you were a smaller part of a business force to be the sole bookkeeper of the $1.1B overpriced debt that the Times paid for the Globe. It was a mistake at the time, but the Times doesn’t have to account for it. Oh no, instead, WE have to lose our newspaper.
If the paper was being lost due to a problem with the revenue stream alone, I wouldn’t be ranting about it. However, to decouple this outcome from the STUPID conglomerate Times decision to borrow so much money, that’s a misstatement of the problem.
“Maybe you didn’t care before but I did.”
Again with the “you” and the personalization of this. I said “US.” I have been following this story (on the truthful NPR rather than *laughing my ass off* Glen freaking Beck) for more than a few months now.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:58 am
“You are so wrong I don’t even know where to begin. Honestly, your type of rhetoric scares me.
Just because it’s happening to you too doesn’t mean it’s not an assault on working people by the very wealthy. It’s actually proof that I am right, and this is one damned slippery slope.”
Excuse me for being dense, but I don’t get any of this. What are you trying to say?
All I saw said was it isn’t only irresponsible and greedy mega-corporations that are hurting right now. Sometimes companies become unprofitable due to outside problems and the individual workers there, including the owners and the managers, need to make sacrifices. The small, private company I work for basically mirrors the above example, and I’m not pissing and moaning about corporate greed - I’m happy I have a job still. Had this been a large public company run by a multi-billionaire CEO where I felt unimportant, I’d probably feel different. But that’s not what he was talking about.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:01 am
Well I guess I need to learn to write then, but if you haven’t noticed we over a Mr. Mill City try not to take ourselves so seriously.
BTW, I DON’T think rioting is the answer- just what I see happening.
Yeah the Globe going out of business is a real possibility through no fault of theres, just like me getting paid 90% of my salary for doing 100% of my work isn’t my fault. Just a big ol’ reality check.
“it took the first pirate attack on an American ship to get us to give a shit.” your words not mine- I’m just letting YOU know there are people out there who were ahead of the curve on this one and NPR and *gasp* that evil man Glenn Beck were two of the outlets.
Looking forward to two weeks from last monday….. have to go back to my 100% workload now.
PS anyone who still celebrates Easter- happy Easter those that don’t enjoy the long weekend.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
“but if you haven’t noticed we over a Mr. Mill City try not to take ourselves so seriously.”
Well you may not have noticed but here we actually do take a lot of our discussions seriously, and since you are here posting on my blog not the other way around, it might be a good idea to understand the context and the culture of the place you’re posting, or at least let us in on your humor and not expect us to read your mind. Honestly I can see none of that in your posts here, just sarcasm and somewhat caustic commentary about what “I” or “people” or whoever you are referring to think or feel.
Corey, what I am trying to say is that if it makes people to feel better equating their small/medium/good business experiences with sacrifice to this circumstance, they are missing the entire point of my post, which is, a) no accountability for conglomerates who can siphon off risk into subsidiaries, shut down the subsidiary, and wash away the debt, leaving the conglomerate to suffer little consequence for their actions, and b) that the evidence that everyone’s hurting right now and being asked to lose purchasing power is just evidence that this is a disgusting pattern. In case you haven’t noticed, people’s wages were stagnant BEFORE this downturn, and the losses in the middle class, the pressure on upward mobility (which under economic neoliberalism which is just a guise of economic libertarian conservatism has slipped under every conservative president) in the last 30 years is a trend, and not one we should be celebrating, or tolerating.