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.
