The Great Limbaugh Con: the Book |
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to download this material for personal, not-for-profit, use. If you duplicate it for others, attribute it to Charles M. Kelly. Print copies are still available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and used copies are widely available on the internet. WHY The Great Limbaugh Con WAS WRITTEN
Over the past 40 years, I've seen a steady degeneration in business ethics with regard to workers and the general public. It's no accident. It's a deliberate attack by well-financed demagogues on our traditional values. Our citizens used to think that honest work deserved a fair compensation, and that capitalism should benefit workers as well as investors. No longer. Limbaugh, and others like him, have helped make it possible for right-wing conservatives to get elected to public office and pass legislation that directly benefited investors and the established wealthy—and at the direct expense of those who work for a living.
Degeneration of Corporate CultureI'm a retired management consultant, and I've seen from the inside what
big corporations, with the support of conservative politicians, are now
doing to their middle and lower level employees. Over the past few decades, millions of employees put their best efforts
into "quality circles," productivity improvement teams, and special task
forces in order to help large corporations become more efficient and more
profitable. When they expressed concern that their greater efficiency
would lead to headcount reduction, they were promised that, no, that
wouldn't happen. Management consultants like myself, and high level executives explained
that, as productivity and profits went up, and as the economy grew,
everyone would benefit. Work would become less stressful and people would
have a better quality life at home with their families. Eventually, they
may even get more vacation time, and possibly a 35-hour work week. At the time, I did not believe that I was lying. After all, hadn't that
been the trend during the 40s, 50s, 60s, and into the 70s? I also had the
privilege of working for some of the most socially responsible
corporations in America at the time. Now that productivity and profits have
skyrocketed, however, the philosophy of conservative politicians, business
owners, investors and high level executives has mysteriously changed. Once
the balance of power shifted totally in their own direction, they decided
that fairness has no place in business decisions. Today, the CEO's only responsibility is to the stockholders. Workers
have the same status as machinery and have no human rights whatsoever—no
matter how much time and effort they have invested in the enterprise. So, improvements in equipment don't mean that work becomes easier and less stressful for employees. It means that half the workforce is fired and those who remain must now work harder than they did before—with incomes that don't keep pace with inflation—"because competition demands it." Of course, executives and stockholders exempt themselves from the competition and get fabulously rich in the process. Competition and "Free" Markets
Which brings us to the competition issue. Sure, competition and free
markets are good for our economy, but only if they are based on moral
standards. In other words, moral investors and business persons must be able to compete with each other on the bases of who:
Unfortunately, however, conservative politicians didn't give us this kind of free market. They gave us "globalization," which rewards those who compete on the basis of who is willing to treat their lower level employees the most brutally. If you think that "brutally" is too harsh a word, consider the
manufacturing plants in Guatemala. Their armed guards have sawed-off
shotguns and they won't allow international inspection teams into their
facilities. With monotonous repetition, we read in the daily papers about
human and environmental rights being violated in Mexico, Indonesia and
other third world countries. As long as there are investors and corporate executives who are willing
to violate basic moral standards relating to the fair treatment of
workers, those who would respect moral standards cannot compete. In
effect, the market becomes "free" only for the immoral. And that is exactly what is happening to our manufacturing industries. Even the high level managers who honestly believed their promises of fairness to workers are being betrayed. After employees build a profitable corporation, it is likely to be taken over by unscrupulous new managers or a corporate raider, and all promises of fairness are forgotten. So, What Really Caused Income
Disparity? Apologists for the wealthy and powerful have convinced us that manual
labor is no longer a valued activity, and workers whose mamas and daddies
didn't send them to college don't deserve a decent income. Reason: there
are starving people in Indonesia who will do anything to have enough to
eat. Besides, if the poor working drudges in our country made enough to actually live here, it would cause inflation and we can't have that. (Forget the runaway inflation in the prices of land, homes and rent that the wealthy cause, and that severely penalizes middle and low income Americans.) Values were quite different 40 years ago when I began management
consulting. Loyalty meant something, and most people believed that it was
earned and owed, by both employee and owner. There was an implied contract
with the moral force of, shall we say, "Christian values"? It was the
binding that created a sense of community in organizations. Many businesses succeeded and prospered because uneducated employees
started with the business and accepted low wages and hard working
conditions. The implied promise from the corporate executive or the
business owner was: "Work hard with me, grow with me, and you will share
in my prosperity." Then, the 1980s arrived with a vengeance. Although you can't legislate
morality, you can legally require behaviors that voters consider moral.
You also can destroy legislation that protect those moral values, and that
is exactly what pro-business politicians, both Democrats and Republicans,
have done. So, if you are a middle or low income American, don't buy the popular
delusion that today's income disparity is the result of natural economic
forces that should not be controlled. This delusion leads to a sense of
futility and the search for scapegoats, and makes it impossible to attack
the origins of the problem. Fact is, apologists for the wealthy and
powerful—with Limbaugh leading the way—have sold a set of values to the
voting public that has allowed pro-business politicians to get elected.
They, in turn, have changed our economy from one that used to benefit both
investors and workers, to one that now benefits investors at the expense
of workers. Investors are now confiscating the wealth that workers, professionals
and all levels of managers have produced over the decades and taking it
out of the country—purely to benefit themselves, and with no regard to
justice for those who produced the wealth. And don't blame technology, competition, or education for the shrinking
standard of living for the bottom half of America. Don't count on
Christian values for fairness in the workplace. All that counts in today's economy is power and greed and the laws that control incomes. And before the year 2008 arrives, voters had better figure out which politicians have the interests of our total society at heart, rather than just the established rich and powerful. —Chuck Kelly The Great Limbaugh Con can be obtained online at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.
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