Americans, do you really want to work for a Company...?

Cheryl, "Big Business" is under siege by the current administration.

Producers and Achievers are being painted as "evil rich people."

You're surprised that business leaders are "pulling back?"

You're surprised that investors are NOT investing?

The administration has painted a clear picture . . .

If you make more than $250,000 . . . you're evil and we're coming after you.

Doctors and Dentists have already said they will "scale back" how many patients they will be seeing . . .

I don't blame them . . .

Sorry, Cheryl . . . the C.E.O.'s and top executives are just doing what is necessary for the survival of THEIR job, and the company they run.

Dan in Miami (and I make LESS than $40,000, so I'm not defending myself)

One essential factor to take into account here is that the fundamental relationship between the capitalist and the worker is one of legalised exploitation; that workers, without much choice and disenfranchised from the means of production do not labour for the good of the company or it’s ‘brain’, that the exploiters do not pursue any dream loftier than lining their profits off the back of the minions beneath them. A redundancy is little more than a reduction in productive forces resulting in a drop in profits in their eyes

Of course the captains of industry are well aware of the differences between the classes, and will no doubt be demanding work-forces everywhere tighten their collective belts in light of the depression, or face redundancy. While they themselves make both the most minimal yet ostentatious of sacrifices.

Such is the nature of the class conflict.

And the governments which are sworn to represent the interests of the whole will be seen to work firstly, most unequivocally and quite frantically for the interests of their real masters, the capitalist class.

Bush, Brown and even Obama couldn’t shovel the great heaps of public capital fast enough in the direction of the very culprits, the architects of this crisis, those heroes of America’s financial hierarchy while the working masses, victims of the corrupt system are left out in the cold to weather the storm resultant of the former’s avarice laden perspectives

They are trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of their workers. The employers are in a win-win situation. They have a deseperate work force. Everyone is scared of losing their jobs. No one is going to complain if they are doing the work if two...what are you going to do? Leave? Ha. Oh, and by the way, no raise this year and we're making you pay more for your healthcare benefits.

My husbands company made 1.1 billion dollars last year...down from 1.3 the year before.....they laid of thousands of employees. My husbands department is now training to take over the work of another department that they are getting rid of. His industry has lost thousands of jobs in this area. He's not happy about the changes but there is nothing he can do and nowhere to go.

Part of this is greed, part of this is all the stockholder BS. Companies feel they always have to top themselves. It doesn't matter if you made over a billion dollars in profits...if they made more last year...it's a bad year regardless. The people at the top aren't going to voluntarily suffer..they have become accustomed to their fat salaries and big bonuses. The stockholders have to be placated so a dip in profits has to be answered. So they get rid of people in the bottom tier and make everyone else pick up the slack.

There is a movie called the Corporation. Talks about how these companies canabalize themselves in the name of making numbers look good. Interesting and very depressing.

Outsourcing is a problem too. My father works for a large company that is now outsourcing it's accounting to India. So it's not just IT services. They claim that it isn't due to money..it's the intellect. Yeah. So basically they are saying that they can't find enough smart Americans to do accounting which is bull.

I've been asking this same question all along. Look at the salaries of the attic. If they took a pay cut they would be able to keep their workers instead of laying them off. I don't understand how these people sleep at night.

I work for a major airline (American Airlines). Five years ago the company was brought to the brink of bankruptcy because of poor management and an economic downturn after 9/11. Management came to the the mechanics, pilots and flight attendants and wanted salary concessions to "save the company". Keep in mind that upper management took ZERO pay cut. We (the flight attendants) fought the pay cut but the company threatened bankruptcy and the entire company would blame it on us. We relented and ended up taking a 30% pay cut. The company had asked us to work with them to rebuild the company saying that when we returned to profitability we would share in the wealth. Within 2 years we did return to profitability. The flight attendants got $50 per quarter, the upper management got multimillion bonuses. It hasn't changed, even with the economy now those same upper executives continue to take their bonus. Last week the company announced that there will be a layoff of flight crew members. I haven't seen one executive being laid off or giving up any of their salary. They should be ashamed.

A business is not a house and even if it were the purpose of a house is not to shelter the foundation.

A much better analogy for a business is an army. A good general doesn't like losing soldiers but sometimes it cannot be avoided.

Most companies I've worked for know very well the difference. Most companies don't want to lay off workers, because it means business isn't going well. A good business doesn't lay off a good worker until it is financially necessary for them to do so.

So, you want the company NOT to lay off some workers and end up closing it's doors and putting ALL is workers out of a job. Please, let us know if you ever become the CEO of a company so I can make sure NOT to invest in the company you run.

You are an absolute genius!

People who don't want to work for a company that would lay them off should get laid off because they don't want to work for a company like that. The wisdom of that concept seems illogical but it's actually brilliant.

Once these people are laid off they can start businesses of their own. Since they are in charge they will never get laid off. I'm impressed.

Big business doesn't, & won't care about the "bricks" being removed from the foundation, until it starts to lean to one side to much. Then they scurry around like ants trying to repair the damage they have done to themselves.

In the meantime, the CEO's are looking for ways to get bigger pay raises for themselves.

Talk about burning your house down around you!

Outsourcing is really the only "problem" with our economy.

Sadly - so many corporations are now claiming that the economy is forcing them to outsource... which is just denial on their part.

It's the Outsourcing that causes the collapse of the economy - not the other way around.