Jobs and Jehovah

Midrange Server Magazine ^ | March 1, 2004 | Victor Rozek

[Hat-Trick]

As I See It: Jobs and Jehovah

by Victor Rozek

Hewlett-Packard's CEO, Carly Fiorina, made a provocative statement a while back. "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," she said. It was a telling, if somewhat flippant, remark that sought to vindicate the practice of outsourcing, while dismissing opposition to it for not being divinely sanctioned. As a measure of how far we've slid down the outsourcing job drain, Ms. Fiorina apparently could see no benefit in preserving middle class jobs.

Indeed, it was a disingenuous statement coming as it did from the CEO of a major technology company. For one thing it's a metaphor, composed of equal parts presupposition and implied threat. For another, it's a statement, pretending to be global, that clearly does not apply to the speaker. Ms. Fiorina's job is in no immediate danger of being outsourced.

Note what Ms. Fiorina is asking us to believe. Her statement presupposes that at one time there were some jobs that were, in fact, America's God-given right. I know of no such jobs, and unless God speaks directly to Ms. Fiorina, neither does she. The statement further presupposes that although in the past God favored our nation with exclusive employment opportunities, that is no longer the case, and thus we have no cogent claim on our earthly employers. By logical extension, if God is no longer the granter of employment rights, who then is empowered to take God's place? Why, the market, of course, and its high priests, the corporations. And here's the implied threat: Having assumed the full mantle of divinity, Ms. Fiorina and her colleagues can do anything they wish, with impunity. The message Ms. Fiorina is sending is this: Since God abandoned you, don't expect much from us; you're on your own.

I frankly don't know of anyone who believes his job is a God-given right. That does not, however, preclude the fact that a job is a two-way partnership, with rights and responsibilities on both sides. The most elemental expression of that partnership is based on the voluntary exchange of values, where one person trades his time and skill for compensation supplied by another. That's a noble ideal, and one that, historically, both labor and management have sought to bend to their advantage. Whether it's the reckless demands of unions or the exploitative tendencies of employers, each side was constantly angling for a bigger slice of the pie.

[Hat-Trick]

A pretty fair & decent article and assessment of the technology offshoring/outsourcing situation. Author does a good job of presenting the employer vs. employee relationship in this "global" economy. As always, love to read all the freeper's comments.

Hat-Trick

[babygene]

You know, I retired from Hewlett-Packard in 2001. I was so happy to re-invent myself. I'm now the CEO of a (very) small American company... Thank you very much.

In the early days, working for Uncle Bill and Dave was great. Once Ms. Fiorina took over, it started to suck. In the old days, the most valuable asset the company had was it's employees. For the last few years, the most valuable asset has been the "wicked witch of the west"...

[steve50]

Good article. Seems like Jeffersons' warnings about a banking/merchant based economy is playing.

[Just mythoughts]

"A pretty fair & decent article and assessment of the technology offshoring/outsourcing situation."

Actually I have a different take.

This nation has turned over to government "Cost of business" to regulators. i.e. the "gods".

No longer is there ONE GOD, but gods everywhere. The people of this nation allowed under the guise of protecting the "WORKERS" through UNIONS to become to costly to survive.

The remarks to me are actually very timely, considering the usurping of power of the people to power to a few elitists CEO's, UNION LEADERS, POLITICIANS, RELIGION of the ENVIRO's, and EDUCATION.