So what? They seem to be doing something right. I’ll take a high tax rate and a better standard of living over what I’ve got right now.
Oh, wait, were we supposed to shriek in reflexive unthinking horror at high taxes? 'Cause they’re always bad, right?
Hear hear!
(I watched this Continental Congress thing on tv last night).
There is a really interesting book called The Big Squeeze that talks a lot about this- how workers are being forced to work more hours, for fewer benefits and lower wages (adjusted for inflation) than ever before. I don’t know if I’d say that we’re too productive, but certainly in the US, and I’d wager to bet elsewhere in the world, workers are not being properly compensated for their services, often so that goods can be cheaper (hello, Wal-mart.)
More and faster is necessary. Not for any good reason; it’s just necessary.
Business these days is about the numbers, the numbers, and nothing BUT the goddamn numbers. Shareholder value is the only meaningful metric, and shareholders are mostly professional investors, who spend all day in front of terminals yelling into phones. When they move, they move like Marines, or angry sheep: fast, en masse, and with deadly force. Profitability is not enough: maximum profitability is all that will keep your price per share from crashing. It is not enough to win; your competitors must lose. Lead your market sector or don’t survive.
So, when there is only ever one winner and Nos. 2 through n get the keys to the street, everyone has to haul ass just to stay alive.
Amen to that. Along similar lines, I’m fine at my current salary. Rather than a raise next fiscal year, I would love to have more time off! But because of the stupid American mind set, I think that’s unlikely to happen. So I’ll have to keep hoarding my PTO.
I would also pay more taxes to have a better, public health insurance option, like my family in Canada. I don’t need money to buy more crap what I need is my physical and mental health and time to enjoy life!
What if it’s too late? What if they’ve fucked things up so permanently that we have to stay on the hamster wheel or everybody starves?
What if kicking back and taking time to enjoy life were actually more selfish than working your ass off to keep The Man on top? What a fine ironic moral victory he’ll have then.