General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Fast-Food Strikes Expand Across U.S. to 50 Cities [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)you will find in past times in our nation's workers organized and formed unions and forced companies to pay higher wages, improve the work environment and to stop treating lower paid workers as slaves. The result was a strong and vibrant middle class and everybody benefited.
Unfortunately over time the unions overreached. Some of this was due to corruption but also the fact that in order to justify their existence unions, had to ask for higher wages and more benefits during every contract negotiation.
The result was that competition from other companies who were not unionized but still offered a good hourly pay and fair benefits were able to produce a product at a lower price. Ronald Reagan became President and supported large corporations in their efforts to eliminate unions. Many companies decided to leave pro-union states and move to states with laws that allowed them to set up their production lines without hiring unionized employees. Later many companies decided to outsource their operations to foreign nations where once again they could treat their workers as slaves to be exploited.
Now the pendulum of history has swung to favor the companies again and now the workers are underpaid, oppressed and mistreated. Workers' wages have not increased significantly in recent years but the profit of large corporations have skyrocketed and their management has benefited from high salaries.
So I predict the pendulum has reached its peak and will now swing in the other direction. Workers will rebel and try to form unions. A long fight will ensue and hopefully will not involve the violence of the early movement to establish unionization. In perhaps ten to twenty years workers will be paid a much fairer wage and have better benefits. The upper management of many companies may have to take a pay cut but since there may be a stronger middle class with the expendable income to buy more this may not happen.
Greed drives many people and that can apply to both the company owners,their management and the workers. Excessive greed is a character fault while wishing to do well in life is not. I refuse to hate all rich people as many are generous and try to help others. I simply wish they would realize that much of their money comes from the effort of those who work for them and try to treat their employees fairly. If they become tyrants, why should they be surprised when their workers rebel?
But my opinion has some faults. As long as we continue to allow major companies to outsource production to foreign nations without some punishment, little will change. If they chose to do so they should be forced to pay a significantly higher tax rate. Over the years outsourcing has hurt our nation significantly. I remember the days when a person with just a high school education could find a well paying job on a production line where he could make enough money to support his family without his wife working. Those days may never return as we do live a global economy and sometimes reality sucks. Still American workers are known for being extremely productive and for making superior products.
Another factor is that our nation is largely run by the rich. The cost of running for election in our nation is so high that most in the middle class find it extremely difficult to obtain office at a national level unless they take significant contributions from the very wealthy. Instead of concentrating on passing good legislation they are forced to spend much of their available time soliciting contributions. In the end they realize that unless they favor policies the rich back they may see their careers end.
Over time even the poorer members of Congress who do manage to get elected end up rich. Two great careers to follow in our nation are politics and televangelism. Both involve charisma and all too often both require deceit and dishonesty. Both lead to wealth. Both require time to acquire this wealth.
Our Presidents have term limits and perhaps members of Congress should also. I would set the limit at four terms for a Senator and twelve terms for a member of the House. To me this seems fair. Holding office at the national level should be limited to less than 25 years and not be a lifelong career. Limiting office to less than 10 years would be foolish as good Senators and members of the House of Representatives would lose their jobs far too early. I would also increase a President's term limit to three. A good President would be able to do a lot to benefit our nation if he wasn't going to be forced to leave office after his second term.