.
A business (or government) has five components: capital, creative, producer/workers, sales, customers. Each must have roughly equal say in what is produced, quality, price, and each should share roughly equally in the profits. Today, capital runs everything and takes most of the money, and sales (the least creative or productive) is elevated above all else. That's why our government and our economy do not work: two sectors have taken too much control.
A university teacher, for example, can be a fabulous teacher and writer with a great mind. But he is pressured to do "sales," i.e. fundraising, getting grants, and if he does not succeed in "sales," the area which is least suited to his talents, he will not be promoted or possibly even retained.
The biggest paycheck in a law firm does not go to the best attorney. It goes to the best salesperson. Bring in clients, promise them anything, guarantee you'll win, inflate your credentials and lie about your history, but land the client. Once you bring in the client, you will receive a big chunk of whatever they pay to have some other attorney in your firm do the actual legal work.
Most employees of wall street firms know very little about investments. They have charts prepared by the brains in their organization, computer programs, and they sit and fill in the information about age, assets, years to retirement, and the computer spits out the suggested allocation of investments. The employees' only function is sales: bring in the clients, promise them anything, get a cut of the commission.
I remember, not that long ago, when the salespeople were considered to be the low-end employees. Death of a Salesman. They're not creative. They make nothing. They often do not even understand the product. Their talent is in being attractive, glib, dishonest and persuasive. Why does your doctor prescribe a certain drug? Because the drug manufacturer sent him some hot young female in a low cut top and short skirt to take him to a special holiday lunch. That's it.
The people who create, invent, produce, do the labor, should be in charge, in cooperation with the customers. They should decide what to make, what quality, what to charge, and how to divide up the profits, fairly, so that everybody gets to have shelter, food, recreation, medical. When work is slow, instead of firing people set up a job-share and keep everybody working. Capital and sales care only about more money for themselves. Everybody else understands the concepts of loyalty, helping a neighbor, supporting your community.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
The Job Of Unions Is To Organize Workers To Fight For Their Rights.
*
The job of unions is not to support democrats, but to force the democrats to support the working people of this country.
The job of unions is not to demand coffee breaks for workers in third world countries who are now doing American jobs -- it is to get those jobs back here.
The job of unions is not to make friends with Wall Street, but to tear it down, dismantle the system, and throw its leaders into prison.
The job of unions is not to get bigger pensions for their insiders, but to get jobs for the unemployed.
The job of unions is to get their members out in the street, to shut the whole country down if needed, to protect the jobs of American working people. It requires a commitment to action, which must be as radical as the economic conditions we face.
The job of unions is to organize working people to fight for their own rights, not to organize phone banks to get some millionaire elected.
The job of unions is not to have their inner circle spend two years out of every four in the national binge-drinking excuse they call "elections."
The job of unions is not to learn how to work with the fascists on the right-wing. The job of unions is to destroy the fascists on the right-wing and take away their power and their money.
The job of unions is not to debate the merits of the wars, but to demand an end to them. It is only the children of the working people who fight the wars, while the children of Wall Street learn to be just like their parents -- thieves, liars, murderers.
The job of unions is not to support democrats, but to force the democrats to support the working people of this country.
The job of unions is not to demand coffee breaks for workers in third world countries who are now doing American jobs -- it is to get those jobs back here.
The job of unions is not to make friends with Wall Street, but to tear it down, dismantle the system, and throw its leaders into prison.
The job of unions is not to get bigger pensions for their insiders, but to get jobs for the unemployed.
The job of unions is to get their members out in the street, to shut the whole country down if needed, to protect the jobs of American working people. It requires a commitment to action, which must be as radical as the economic conditions we face.
The job of unions is to organize working people to fight for their own rights, not to organize phone banks to get some millionaire elected.
The job of unions is not to have their inner circle spend two years out of every four in the national binge-drinking excuse they call "elections."
The job of unions is not to learn how to work with the fascists on the right-wing. The job of unions is to destroy the fascists on the right-wing and take away their power and their money.
The job of unions is not to debate the merits of the wars, but to demand an end to them. It is only the children of the working people who fight the wars, while the children of Wall Street learn to be just like their parents -- thieves, liars, murderers.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Milton Rogovin, photographer, dies at 101.
This won the best short documentary at the Tribeca film festival a few years ago. It is about Milton Rogovin, a photographer who lived in the Buffalo area. He was called from Huac, his name and reputation were destroyed, and he lost his business as a result. He started taking pictures, and created a fabulous photo history of some neighborhoods in Buffalo.
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