What is behind the protests? Mass “white” unemployment in the most expensive region of the world, with education/skills offering little protection against it.
Flame me if you want, but when you scrape away the silly side issues of the fringes involved here, a lot of these people have some valid points and hopefully can do something to improve conditions for all of our workers. The simple fact is that no matter how much you think you’ve played a role in keeping your job, most jobs are very easy to send away nowadays and most of us could easily be in their shoes. I recently met some accountants from the Philippines, paid $65K to work here; these are jobs some of these protesters undoubtedly held until six months ago.
For the record, I’ve been working steadily since delivering newspapers in grammar school, and probably will be for years to come. Given that, there is no doubt that our standard of living has visibly fallen in the last few decades, and we’ve done little to stop it.
Now what does that phrase remind me Of?
Oh yes. Communism, where people are considered "our workers" - i.e., subjects of the state who must look to the state for everything, including jobs, rather than a free citizenry in charge of their lives, without gov't interference.
it isn't the gov'ts job to provide jobs. It the gov'ts job to get the he*l out of our way.
I will not flame you because I agree with you. Corporate America has made life miserable for many average American workers as they saber tooth his career and wages thru cycles of hire, fire, rehire doing something totally different (at lower salary of course), fire you after you barely exceed you last salary and begin the whole cycle over and over. Wait till you hit late 40’s then you are too old unless you made it over the hurdle in executive management. The cause of all this chaos is free trade and globalism. In the past we were able to patch this problem up with plenty of jobs and opportunities, but the gov and reckless bankers made such a mess out of the real estate, it will take decades to resolve the recession. Guess what you and I and our kids must put their economic opportunities on hold while the people who caused this (elected politicians and corporate execs) keep their perks and bonuses. Well all this is coming to a bursting point. Off shoring jobs is one contributing factor, illegal immigrants and low paying H-1B workers is another contributing factor. Like any revolt, many causes finally culminate until someone takes the lead. Unfortunately for most freepers the left has grabbed the initiative while too many freepers still trust corporate execs because they are the product of free markets. Corporate execs, politicians, union heads, etc etc who have power and wealth are all prone to abuse, corruption and thievery. Old ancient saying - “Merchants as a group are vital to an empire, because as a group they produce substantial wealth. A good ruler should be mindful to encourage and nurture their industry. At the same time a wise ruler must keep an eye on them because they are capable of using their wealth to corrupt officials and cheat the people.”