Blue Plate Special
Lunch time conversation with co-workers yesterday fixated on the sputtering economy and all the related fallout. Typically gas prices headline these conversations but in recent days the chatter has turned decidedly more glum.
There’s a palpable feeling amongst working folks all across the land that things are seriously out of whack in the good old USA.
A day hardly passes when we don’t learn of another bank that’s gone belly up while the head honchos congratulate themselves with hundred million dollar bonuses for their performance. Taxpayers have become the favorite patsy for “big business” while the government inexorably looks the other way.
People I work with seem struck with how grandiose our problems have become and yet how lousy are our choices for a new leader to fix them. It’s almost as though both political parties had too much to drink and vomited McCain, Hillary and Obama onto our kitchen floor and are now asking us to “choose one” to take home for four years… “Never in my entire lifetime have I seen a weaker field of presidential candidates and sadly for America, one of them is going to win” said one fellow.
One fellow speculated on where we all thought the best place would be in order to “ride out” the coming bad times. He was talking about moving away to some backwoods location. The replies were well thought out and obviously have been discussed before. That fellow Americans are spending their lunch hour debating where they might move in order to escape an expected breakdown in civil order in the bigger cities was sobering.
Gang activity has pushed its way from Memphis into this area 75 miles to the east. There was a lot of conversation about this and the fact that most of it was “Mexican” gangs which spurred talk about the unwillingness of the government to stop illegal immigration. No one at the lunch table thought the government was unable to stop it — instead, all hands believed that the government was actually promoting more illegals as a way of providing ever more pools of cheap labor to benefit special interests.
And they pointed out one other frailty in the system that, so far as I can tell, has received no media attention and it doesn’t show up in any government “numbers” or statistics — at least not the ones we regularly see.
As the economy has stalled the demand for manufactured goods has followed suit and many plants are slashing overtime. You may think it foolish that folks would come to depend on overtime pay but before you condemn them you need to understand that many factories haven’t hired new workers in years — some of them in decades. Employee benefits are expensive and so many employers have simply ratcheted up the hours worked.
The guys I had lunch with yesterday have averaged 50 hours a week for a solid decade. Without those ten extra hours of time and a half pay, their take home play plunges and they have no disposable income and so the downward death spiral is reinforced on the economy.
Oh, and one other thing… nary a word was spoken about bin Laden or Iraq.
When you’re worried about making your mortgage, buying healthcare, buying groceries and filling the tank with enough gas to get to work and back for the week, it’s really difficult to give a flip about whether the Bush~Cheney Eternal War is making progress or not.
John McCain really should take note of that…
73 de Jeff
April 30th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
“People I work with seem struck with how grandiose our problems have become and yet how lousy are our choices for a new leader to fix them.”
I do know of a candidate that I wouldn’t consider a “lousy” choice, but due to the mainstream media largely ignoring him, not as many people have heard of him, or don’t believe that he has a chance of getting elected.
Another problem seems to stem from the fact that even if there is a candidate that is worth voting for, people won’t vote for him because they are afraid of the possibility of voting for someone that isn’t in the lead.
It is kind of a vicious cycle. People won’t vote for candidate “A” (who the United States really needs) because they are afraid that other people will not vote for candidate “A”. They fear that instead, others will vote for candidate “B” who appears more “electable” (based on what they hear from the mainstream media). Then other people with the same mindset will not vote for candidate “A” because he does not have as many votes.
It is a type of “herd mentality”. This is a good analogy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_behavior#Everyday_decision-making
And at this point, voting for “the lesser evil” really won’t cut it because, as you pointed out, neither McCain, Hillary or Obama are what this country needs. And because people refuse to vote for who they know is really the best for the country, we never get who we need, but continue in a downward spiral continually voting for the most-electable, yet “lesser evil”, until we have come to this.
It is in this light that I ask you and others to investigate, consider, and hopefully tell your friends about presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Even though it is late in the election cycle, I still feel that it is necessary to spread the message that Ron Paul works for - one of limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. His website is http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ .
This is a long-term effort to educate the American people and raise awareness of this message. So even if Ron Paul doesn’t get elected (which is highly likely), the effort is not wasted.
Until we as a nation overcome this “herd mentality” and learn to vote for who we know is best for our country, things can only get worse.
-Jordan
KE5TLB
April 30th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I wouldn’t fret too much about the “Blue Plate Pundits” as what Jordan KE5TLB touches on is really only one of dozens of reasons so much of what we hear is “smack talk” and not “action words.”
In times of economic stress, cultural challenges, and social disruption it is popular to look for a saviour, an external solution, to perceived woes. The Ayn Rand’s Atla Shrugged lament “Who is John Galt?” is on the masses lips.
For the most part the masses, the champions of the Blue Plate Specials, know deep down that it they themselves that need to be counted & accountable for improving society.
Fortunately it is often enough for societal continuance that individuals rise above their self-limitations and act in a society advancing way. Rather often we despair at the self-interest that blunts constructive influence from the masses.
As for elections, in November we will have to, as they say, Pinch our Noses and vote for someone. Whether a Jason suggests we try, that pseudo-libertarian can run an end-run around the machine is questionable, so we are left with picking which flavor of socialist we will vote for.
It is interesting times we live in, exciting, challenging, full of opportunities. yes, there are problems real and imagined, but the upside is endless!
When Americans remember that each of us is the saviour of society - that the novel’s John Galt is ourselves in the mirror - we will regain the focus to again move our society forward.
Let use be worthy of our Freedom and Let Freedom Ring!
73
Steve
K9ZW
http://k9zw.wordpress.com
May 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am
Unemployment is still well below double digits. The stock market remains in the 12K range, interest rates have plunged (as have houses that were over priced, bought by people who had no business buying a home) and the war affects few here on the homefront.
What’s the problem? Why is it govenment’s responsibility to do what the market does best? As for working class jobs that depend on over time…..it’s been obvious for years that these kinds of jobs will be reduced or outsourced/offshored. And they should be.
If the group Jeff had lunch with have all been taking college, technical or advanced education courses in order to transition or supplement their careers then I might be sympathetic. But I’m betting most of them have not voluntarily and on their own pursued new career options. Like so many they want the “government” to save them.
The good news is, this group and many more like it are being washed away around the world. (Why good news?…..Because sitting still will no longer work for the individual). The middle class is contracting everywhere. The globalized information economy will be cruel to those who lunch and complain. And that is as it should be.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:28 am
Mike,
Yours was the prevailing view of things twenty or more years ago. What’s beginning to be realized now, however, (and what you’ve failed to account for), is the rapidity of technological change.
The industrial age moved Americans off the farm and into the factories where they could earn a decent wage and sometimes benefits. The disposable income that was spent by this “middle class” is what has fueled the US economic engine for two generations.
Whereas the industrial age provided these good paying jobs for almost a hundred years, the new technological age (that you presumably believe today’s workers should be training for) will only last for a fraction of that time…
The high-tech jobs will move off-shore even faster than the factory jobs due to it being based on bits instead of atoms. Where it was expensive to move a factory (atoms) to China it’s trivial to hire a “call center” in Mumbai or to employ an entire team of low-wage programmers in Malaysia with the work (bits) being transmitted via the Internet.
The combination of losing the low-tech jobs along with the high-tech jobs will decimate the American middle class – the “miracle” of the US economic engine. We seem to be witnessing a social evolution that will leave us with a large number of ‘losers’ and a very small number of ‘winners’.
It’s my contention that the “formerly middle-class” won’t peacefully adjust to their new serfdom.
And all that says nothing of the global conflicts that await an overpopulated, hungry planet with dwindling food and energy supplies and a perplexing climate problem…
73 de Jeff
May 1st, 2008 at 12:34 pm
The industrial age moved Americans off the farm and into the factories where they could earn a decent wage and sometimes benefits. The disposable income that was spent by this “middle class” is what has fueled the US economic engine for two generations
Correct.
Whereas the industrial age provided these good paying jobs for almost a hundred years, the new technological age (that you presumably believe today’s workers should be training for) will only last for a fraction of that time
Correct again.
It’s my contention that the “formerly middle-class” won’t peacefully adjust to their new serfdom.
Most probably correct.
The larger issue is the culture of entitlement by those who are displaced. Many $30+ an hour industrial workers are simply not worth such a wage. (In strict economic terms). Yet there is a working class school of thought that assumes wages are a reflection of artificial variables like “social justice” or a “living wage” and other such non economic concepts.
There is nothing new about these disruptive developments. From technological obsolescence and off shoring to the ravages of dying industries (Auto/steel) and their antiquated workflow models in a post industrial state. This shift has been underway for years and is as you note, now accelerating.
So again Jeff. In light of these long publicized realities …..”Were any of those you lunched with taking any advanced training or courses to shift to new careers?” What are they doing to prepare themselves and their families for the end of the analog era?
Mike (who has questions and is always searching for answers!)
May 1st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Nice thread and thanks to all for the participation.
I didn’t ask those who I had lunch with a few days ago about their potential educational opportunities so I can’t answer that specific question. I did pay close attention recently to a “town hall” meeting in Illinois where Senator Obama spoke along the same lines. A large employer (Maytag) was closing down after a hundred year run in that town. The locals were shell-shocked and when Obama said that they needed “retraining” most bristled and asked a good question – “retrain for what, there are no other employers in this town”…
It seems to me therein lies part of the problem – who among us is sage enough to be able to predict where the “good jobs” will be tomorrow when technology changes on such a hyper-accelerated pace?
When it comes to the entitlement mentality I have a difficult time laying the blame for that on middle income workers. To one degree or another I think all Americans have an expectation of having a home and food and some of us even expect to have a better life than our parents. It’s been that way since the end of WWII and I suppose most of us just expected it to continue.
What was it Dick Cheney said in the aftermath of 911, “the American way of life is non-negotiable”? I think most understood that to mean that we have certain expectations and if we’re willing to work hard we can have a house and a car and a family and food to feed them.
I’ve worked as a consultant for the big three automakers and have seen some of the inside workings of the big labor unions. I’ve witnessed spectacular episodes of waste by very highly paid workers and I’ll grant you that in the “real world” they wouldn’t be worth half of what they were being paid.
But let’s not forget that while some high school drop-out is making $30 an hour to press a button on a machine, the CEO of GM is headed to another golf outing with his buddies using the corporate jet. He can afford to take a few days off because he just received a $100 million dollar bonus because the company “only” lost $3.3 billion dollars last quarter.
You tell me which GM employee is earning closest to his actual worth?
I harbor no delusions that the government can/will bail us out of this mess – but the markets are only effective at self-correction and self-healing when they aren’t being “gamed” by con men and crooks who dabble daily in the world of high finance. The system needs protection from charlatans – like those who suck all the profits out of a bank and leave it to the FDIC (taxpayers like you and I) to cover the accounts left in tatters.
I’d like to think that congress can pry itself away from important things like hearings on steroid use by baseball clowns long enough to fix some of the real problems but of course that would assume that politicians have some reason to want to fix things – and that’s likely a bad assumption…
73 de Jeff
May 1st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Jeff…..
Your Marxist toned rhetoric and examples surprised me. I was waiting for a John Cougar Mellencamp MP3 to chime in!
The CEO of GM hasn’t made many good decisions of late. Still at the stroke of a pen he can keep a plant open or lay thousands off. Rick Waggoner’s “value” is not measured by time at the desk. (That is definitely a working class perspective!) A CEO’s “value” to shareholders and employees is derived from the strategic and tactical decisions he makes and how the company takes advantage of market opportunities. Many a huge business deal has been concluded on golf courses, in bed and over lunches. Deals that created tens of thousands of jobs in the industrial era. The “class warfare imagery” you paint appeals to the uneducated but sophisticated business observers know better.
That the locals were shell-shocked when Obama said that they needed “retraining” indeed makes my point. Where is it written that all communities have jobs for life? Is the Maytag plant to stay open for two centuries? Three? Are companies supposed to continue indefinitely? Economics knows no such patriotism as expressed by Vice President Cheney. Nor does it respect the “shell-shocked” citizens who think they are entitled to a job in their town.
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Consider the resume’s and educational background of two of my former over achieving interns. Both age 25. Undergraduate degrees with honors. Both are now finishing their “FIRST” masters degrees— they studied while working full time. Both are now on their 3rd full time job. Salary? $60K and full benefits. And both are being courted by digital job headhunters. One is an instructional designer. The other a high end Flash developer. In their world, spending over 18-24 months with a firm is the max. Keep moving. They cannot conceive of the Maytag mentality.
So to your question: “who among us is sage enough to be able to predict where the “good jobs” will be tomorrow when technology changes on such a hyper-accelerated pace?” That is the beauty and uncertainty of the age. Do we want a predictable economic environment? Must everything be as it was in the Post WWII “affluent society”?
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The group you had lunch with and the “shell shocked” Maytag people are irrelevant. They see themselves as victims. Not achievers. They are imprisoned by beliefs formed in another age. (One wonders do they cling to their guns and religion as well? ).
You’re a bright writer Jeff. I’ve enjoyed your views on many issues. I’ll be back for more!
Cheers,
Mike
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
Several years ago I overheard a Blue Plate conversation where one of the fellows had been let go as his workplace automated.
He told his pals how unfair it was, as worse the employer had wanted him to go to “school” to train for the new gear which he was having no part of.
Instead he let technology replace him.
One of his table-mates quipped “They will never replace me, as they haven’t invented a chip that does nothin’ yet.”
He stated the crux of the problem. As a Blue Plate workforce they were offering high costs and low value added to the product.
In a garden you call these sort of plants “weeds.”
In the end it is up to the individual to better themselves, gain the skills to be of value-added to their employer and work for the shared goals of the firm.
I’ve had the privilege of hiring many “Blue Plate” folk and giving them a chance. A Chance to learn a significant trade and to better themselves.
To be able to help people to help themselves makes life good.
But in the end they have to measure up - they have to prove themselves - in employment to their employer, though much more importantly they need to prove themselves to their own self. They have to know they are “worth their salt.”
73
Steve
K9ZW