Wonder how much this a$$clown owner of a failing newspaper pulled down last year.
Posted on 08/01/2010 10:23:28 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse — far more treacherous — than most of the population realizes. There was no need for so many men and women to be forced out of their jobs in the downturn known as the great recession.
Many of those workers were cashiered for no reason other than outright greed by corporate managers. And that cruel, irresponsible, shortsighted policy has resulted in widespread human suffering and is doing great harm to the economy.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor and director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. “Not only did they throw all these people off the payrolls, they also cut back on the hours of the people who stayed on the job.”
As Professor Sum studied the data coming in from the recession, he realized that the carnage that occurred in the workplace was out of proportion to the economic hit that corporations were taking. While no one questions the severity of the downturn — the worst of the entire post-World War II period — the economic data show that workers to a great extent were shamefully exploited.
The recession officially started in December 2007. From the fourth quarter of 2007 to the fourth quarter of 2009, real aggregate output in the U.S., as measured by the gross domestic product, fell by about 2.5 percent. But employers cut their payrolls by 6 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The treatment of workers by American corporations has been worse — far more treacherous ...
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Nothing compared to what Bambi is doing to the world.
Good to hear things are better. I’d like to get some of those things.
Ping
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrew Sum, an economics professor
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What a riot! Instead of asking someone who RUNS a corporation and discovering the tremendous uncertainty created by Obambi, they’re asking an ivory tower academic who may well have never had a real job in the private sector in his life.
Wonder how much this a$$clown owner of a failing newspaper pulled down last year.
Exactly!
Where do you sit, communist Berkeley?
When jobs can be cut, they should be cut. Efficiency is what keeps corporations alive, not pandering to employees.
Companies bear their primary responsibility to their shareholders; their secondary responsibility to their customers and a distant tertiary responsibility to their employees. Companies do not exist as employment wells for the good of the community.
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When I see some of the dumbassed comments by fellow Freepers it’s all I can do to keep focused on the big picture, which is get Conservatives elected so hopefully things will get back on track and our children will have a better future.
And to add to your points, healthy, efficient companies (in which extraneous jobs and operations have been pruned) are in much better shape to provide new, meaningful jobs and be good corporate citizens for their communities than those companies who behave according to communist/socialist/union rules.
Where do these people come from? Corporations exist to earn a profit for the owners (investors). They are not welfare institutions. When demand for products is down, it follows that the need for workers to produce is down, and the income needed to pay the workers is also down. Consequently, a corporation has two choices, continue paying unproductive workers even if through no fault of the worker, or continue to pay under producing workers until the corporation goes bankrupt. Assuming the corporation has funds available, they have the choice of drawing down those funds to pay unneeded workers, or retaining the funds for future capital investment when the economy improves. To draw down cash reserves for benevolent payment of salaries is ultimately self destructive for the corporation. By way of a disclaimer, we had to let go half of our workers, the last thing we wanted to do, but absent spending for capital investment by business, and a reduced demand for support services, we had no other choice. For the time being we are not betting on the future given the current political environment.
Hey Slimes, look around - - - it’s happening to you too.
However, at least those other workers have skills and can be rehired as soon as we have the revolution and send both you and our democrat “leaders” to the guillotine.
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The bottom line is that you don't own the company, and aren't entitled to any of the gains. Nobody owes you a living. You didn't sacrifice a damned thing. You may have worked for less pay, worked less hours, and had fewer benefits, but you presumably were paid for your work.
Sorry about your luck, but hey, my hours were cut too, I haven't had a raise in two years, and I proudly keep on keeping on because I've watched 40 percent of my customers lose their businesses and others are hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Tell us again about how it's not fair now that things are better. For who?
It's not my companies fault that the economy died and that manufacturing is closing it's doors left and right. Talk to Mr. Obama, Harry Reid and Mz Pelosi about that one.
The relocation of our manufacturing jobs is a horrible mess. You may or may not agree but that is OK.
Didn’t Ford believe that their workers should be able to afford the products they were producing and in turn give them a decent wage?
Our company seen huge layoffs and we are also sending lots of work to Mexico. That may or may not concern you unless you fly in a corporate jet sometime in your life. The culture of Mexico does not lend itself well to quality or teamwork.
Currently my employer is not using me in my best talents. I am a problem solver and now I am stuck behind a desk while they have quality issues that I could solve.
Seven fat years...Seven lean years...
Seems the only thing we’ve learned from that incident is to vote for politicians who’ll raid those who were thrifty and smart, and redistribute their stuff to us fools who weren’t.
“Companies do not exist as employment wells for the good of the community.”
Exactly. My company did a 10% workforce reduction in 2008. Why - because they were greedy? No - there simply wasn’t enough work to justify the headcount.
I guess in the mind of the socialist, it would have been better if we maintained the headcount and “spread out the work”.
The question that the left never seems to have a decent answer for is “how long should an individual - or a corporation - continue to produce at a loss?”. Well, I guess they do have an answer; typically it is “you’ll figure it out - you always do...” (ala A.S.)
It’s a pretty basic concept; sometimes to save the whole you have to cut out an “infection”. The alternative is to risk the loss of “the whole”. And while no operation is without pain, in the end, health is improved.
Of course this is the entire problem with the left: avoiding pain - the pain of bad life choices. What they seem to forget is that pain is a powerful motivator. Children learn from the pain of discipline. As adults we should learn from the pain of privation as the consequences of poor decisions.
Without pain we become spoiled, lazy, expectant. Which I guess is why the left eschews pain - at least real pain. They give their constituency “just enough” to avoid real pain and then they package it in fear - the fear that there are those who will take this away from you - those evil conservatives...they don’t care about you like we do...
Of course we know that “care” sometimes involves that application of pain - to wit:
Hebrews 12:
...for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and disciplines every child whom he accepts...but he disciplines us for our good...now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
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Obviously you need to start your own business so that you too can start exploiting workers. Let us know how it goes, and whether you were able to keep your house.