The Rich don't spend they Hoard Money - Middle-American Spend their Raises

The Rich don't spend they Hoard Money - Middle-American Spend their Raises

In America it is estimated that 99% of the wealth is held by the top .1%. That means that all those trillions of dollars are held by billionaires who don’t spend any money like the Middle-American worker. They don’t buy new appliance, new cars, new homes, or take vacations the same way the rich do. The CEO’s of large corporations have held down wages for 40 years, and don’t want to pay taxes on their trillions made every year.

If big corporations paid their workers an average of 30%-40% a year more with paid medical and dental benefits, they would be a spending bonanza this country hasn’t seen in decades. We have trained Americans to spend their paychecks; the higher paid American would buy new clothes, more food, go out for dinner more often to higher end restaurants. The would take vacations to amusement parks such as Disney World or Magic Mountain, and take vacations to other countries.

Corporations would in general, have more profit than ever in history. Their wealth would surpass anything they could generate by stock price valuation. Apple, Google, and many other companies have all profited by the surge in stock prices. But, if they all paid their employees more and gave them the same benefits as corporations in Europe, crime would be less, hunger, financial problems, drug problems, and unemployment would be less. Corporations are against this type of solution that would benefit them in the long run. Why keep people in a low quality of life, when the alternative would increase the quality of life for all, new businesses and corporations would be formed by those with extra-funds to start new endeavors and enterprises. History has a tendency to repeat itself unless we collectively learn from history and the mistakes we have made in the past.

When billionaires amass the wealth of a million people, the power and intoxication it can generates blinds them to the common good. Many billionaires hold companies and hold back their wages, make them pay for more and more of medical, and dental insurance. There are a few companies whereby the workers are forced to work overtime without pay, and work through lunches, and not paid for holidays.  Today, unlike before the 1980’s Americans could have one spouse stay home and take care of the kids, raise them, and guide them through making morale decisions in life, being mentors to their children of passing on some of their wisdom of what is important in life.

The 1980’s showed the cost of living versus exceeding the wages of one earner at home, which forced both the husband and wife to work to meet the demands of owning a house, car, raise children, pay utilities for the home, provide food and clothing for the family. Latch-key children became a reality with children unsupervised at home to get in trouble, and have no role model to guide children in their teens. The cost of day care further eroded the ability of families to make ends meet as the cost of day care, not provided by companies escalated. The cost of homes, and cars skyrocketed as dual wage earners became dominant.  Families could no longer put money aside for retirement, and many today in their 70’s and 80’s have to work to survive due to not being able to save anymore. Social Security, and retirement benefits are insufficient for “Baby Boomers” and younger to maintain a comfortable standard of living as they got older, and unable to work anymore. Is this what we want to be remembered as a society of uncaring greedy corporations that don’t show any appreciate for their employee? Contractors or temporary employees are treated worse than direct employees, they can only hold a job for 12-18 months and then have to be terminated for 6 months before returning. This was due to a Microsoft lawsuit where a few contractors won, against direct employees that were worth millions of dollars due to stock options. The contractors had to pay for their own medical and dental plans, and had to save enough money during their contract to hold them over until they were able to secure another position, as a programmer, electrical or mechanical engineering. We have entered the era of disposable employees. It is a generation where employees are only used until the project is completed, and then discarded, only to be replaced by new, younger, cheaper employees that have to be trained, and become productive only after months of learning the corporate system. There is a vicious cycle of lost productivity during the times the contractors come in, learn how to do their job, let go, and replaced by fresh contractors every year.

Then the next phase we see in corporate greed is that of overseas agencies being used for hiring contractors at lower markups to increase their profits even further with no disregard to American workers. This affects the global market with thousands of these now skilled workers going home with project management skills learned as a contractor and applying those business skills in India, China, and other locations to help create companies that can now directly compete with use, further outsourcing of those jobs, and companies further forces Americans to take pay cuts, with higher mortgage, and taxes, never being able to enjoy life when retired, except for those few who were able to save a few dollars a week to have some type of retirement or move to another country to do so.

If we spread the wealth, if corporations would just realize all the ramifications of giving all employees cost of living increases every year, instead of treating people like “potatoes” to be procured at the lowest cost without regard of how lower wages affects productivity, happiness, well-being, and lower crime in America. Companies need to return to the times of profit sharing, hiring people, training them, providing tuition paid for higher learning, provide health care, day care, would benefit all Americans and corporations alike to build a better future for everyone.