From Charles M. Kelly, a retired management consultant living in Charlotte (kellycm2@bellsouth.net):

(Note: because of space limitations, some of the original text was edited out. The omitted text is now in boldface.)

Advocates of globalization have reached a world-record high in duplicity. Prior to NAFTA, they assured us that everyone, including working class Americans, would benefit from unregulated world trade. Sure, we would lose low-skill manufacturing jobs, but they would be more than offset by the increase in high-skill jobs.

Now they’re saying that a major reason our chronic unemployment is so high is that corporations can’t get enough skilled labor in the U.S., and we need to eliminate immigration quotas for skilled foreign workers. They are in total denial of their own role in the education process. 신용카드현금화

When newly graduated engineers and scientists enter an industry, their theoretical preparation is completed and their practical education begins. They must learn the proprietary advances their corporation has made over the years, as well as innovations of their industry.

Throughout our nation’s history, academic education merely prepared workers to be trained by their employers. The same is true today on a worldwide basis, and the U.S. is at a severe disadvantage because American engineers and scientists make three to four times what they make in developing countries.

When investor and corporate lobbyists persuaded government to abandon any semblance of an industrial policy, they not only made our assembly line workers uncompetitive, they also made our skilled workers uncompetitive.

Even the conservative Forbes magazine, long a supporter of globalization, described what is happening today in an article last month: 신용카드현금화

“Decades of outsourcing manufacturing have left U.S. industry without the means to invent the next generation of high-tech products that are key to its rebirth….

“Amazon.com, for example, couldn’t make a product like the Kindle 2 e-book reader in the U.S. even if it wanted to. The electrophoretic displays in the Kindle 2 are made in Taiwan because the expertise developed from producing flat-panel LCDs migrated to Asia with semiconductor manufacturing. The highly polished injection-molded case is made in China, because the U.S. supplier base for electronic packaging eroded as the manufacture of toys, consumer electronics and computers migrated to China. … The controller board and lithium battery are made in China because – well you get the point.”

The article went on to point out the obvious: when corporations outsource manufacturing and give our latest innovations to other countries, we start to lose process-engineering expertise, since it depends on daily interactions with manufacturing. Once process-engineering talent is gone, research talent focused on the next generation of technologies goes with it.

On the CNBC financial cable network, a representative of the German conglomerate Siemens spoke of the difficulty of finding skilled workers in the U.S. and said that they might have to do the same thing they are doing in Germany. Workers there spend half of their first year in the classroom and half on the job. So what’s new?

When corporations outsource manufacturing, we start to lose process-engineering expertise. Once that’s gone, research talent focused on the next generation of technologies goes with it.

To put it simply, multinational corporations have abandoned their traditional role of training new U.S. employees and are now training foreign nationals because they are far cheaper. Then they criticize our outstanding education system—still the best in the world and where other countries send their people to study science and engineering. In addition, they have the gall to pressure our government to allow them to bring the foreigners they trained back to fill jobs here. 신용카드현금화

The class war is over, folks. The established wealthy, the money handlers and the multinational corporations have won. Those who earned a decent income for working hard lost. Losers include not only unskilled workers, but the mass of untrained skilled workers as well.

Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.

History is littered with hundreds of conflicts over the future of a community, group, location or business that were “resolved” when one of the parties stepped ahead and destroyed what was there. With the original point of contention destroyed, the debates would fall to the wayside. Archive Team believes that by duplicated condemned data, the conversation and debate can continue, as well as the richness and insight gained by keeping the materials. Our projects have ranged in size from a single volunteer downloading the data to a small-but-critical site, to over 100 volunteers stepping forward to acquire terabytes of user-created data to save for future generations. 신용카드현금화

The main site for Archive Team is at archiveteam.org and contains up to the date information on various projects, manifestos, plans and walkthroughs.

This collection contains the output of many Archive Team projects, both ongoing and completed. Thanks to the generous providing of disk space by the Internet Archive, multi-terabyte datasets can be made available, as well as in use by the Wayback Machine, providing a path back to lost websites and work.

Our collection has grown to the point of having sub-collections for the type of data we acquire. If you are seeking to browse the contents of these collections, the Wayback Machine is the best first stop. Otherwise, you are free to dig into the stacks to see what you may find. 신용카드현금화

The Archive Team Panic Downloads are full pulldowns of currently extant websites, meant to serve as emergency backups for needed sites that are in danger of closing, or which will be missed dearly if suddenly lost due to hard drive crashes or server failures.

When’s the last time you heard a Democratic political leader charge Republicans with waging “class warfare”? Maybe I’ve been living in a cave, but I can’t recall a singletime in the last twenty years. As unbelievably hypocritical as they seem, it’s REPUBLICANS who keep bringing it up. 신용카드현금화

Republicans learned long ago that a good offense was the best defense, andDemocrats still haven’t figured out how they’ve been had. Republicansalways deflect criticism from themselves by beating others to the punch.They accuse others of doing what they’ve been doing for years. In propagandaterms, it’s called “inoculation.”

All they have to do is shout “class warfare” and “politics of envy,” and,in response, Democrats do everything they can to avoid the subject. It’slike there is a perverted political version of the Marquis of Queensburyrules: whoever first makes a nasty, but very effective, chargegets to own it. The fact that the charge is totally baseless, and even 180 degrees out of phase, is irrelevant.

“Class warfare” and “politics of envy” suggestsniveley wimps who want toget something for nothing, and Americans are obviously turned off by theparty that gets pinned with the labels. Instead of trying to sound morelike Republicans (supporting capital gains tax benefits for the wealthy,anti-union legislation, exporting jobs overseas, and so on), Democratsmust effectively counterattack and place the correct labels where theybelong. Republicans are conducting class warfare against America’sworking classes and engaging in the politics of greed.

This will be easy to demonstrate, simply because the facts are all on the side of liberals. For some lessons on how to do it, just look at how the far right conservatives have done it.

Michael Novak, of the American Enterprise Institute and columnist for Forbes, did a hatchet job on Kevin Phillips. Phillips, a qualified Republican political expert proved in his book, Politics of Rich and Poor, that it is the Republicans who are waging class warfare. Novak used the same tired clich�s of the American right wing (Forbes, May 28, 1990, 151) to discredit him: 신용카드현금화

Novak’s demagoguery is instructive for two reasons. First, all he had to do was to ignore the facts and make the charges. Second, he reversed the roles of the predators and the victims. He made the real class warfarer’s (wealthy conservatives) sound like the victims. He made those who want to address the problem of income disparity sound like the predators.

What’s sad is that the charges alone were enough to convince many people that they were true, and his article�as with similar articles and public statements�was probably very effective, especially when not responded to.

Shakespeare’s Wisdom

In Hamlet, Queen Gertrude observed the devious behavior of another and voiced one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The corollary here is: “for innocent bystanders, the Republicans doth protest a hell of a lot, methinks.” 신용카드현금화

The Republicans are at the forefront in class warfare and they’ve been winning since the beginning of decade of the 80s, at least. Now they’re getting self-conscious, and they feel they must prevent a counterattack by scaring Democrats out of it. They’ve been extremely effective at keeping their class warfare under wraps, and they’re doing their damnedest to keep others from mentioning the dirty words that describe what they’re doing.

Consider some of the obvious issues. A study of the results of taxlegislation of the ’80s, released by the nonpartisan Congressional BudgetOffice (February, 1990), clearly indicated that the rich are paying lessin federal taxes and workers are paying more.

Commenting on the study, House Democrat William Gray said, “The statistics show that the rich are getting richer and the working- and middle-class Americans are being raped under the tax policy of the Republicans.”

The classic response came from a senior Bush administration official,who, naturally, asked not to be identified. He said: “…theadministration would welcome “class war” by the Democrats.” “They triedit last year and it didn’t work,” referring to House Democrats’ failureto block a cut in the tax rate on capital gains.

The shadowy White House spokesman was bluffing, and the bluff probablyworked. At least, the Republicans think the strategy works. Our newvice presidential candidate, Jack Kemp, outdid himself, saying(Wall Street Journal, Nov. 23, 1990, A8): 신용카드현금화

I’m in debt to Jack. I didn’t realize Lincoln was against fairness. In fact, I always thought he had something to do with an actual, real war to improve fairness for blacks.

Be that as it may, Republicans obviously feel they have discovered the “speech for all occasions.” They can squeeze it in anywhere and relate it to anything or anybody, as long as it’ll keep people from thinking.

Whenever anyone asks for fairness, say, in the income tax system, or education, or a better break for workers�Republicans don’t try to defend their abysmal record, they just charge their critics with “class warfare,” talk about the “politics of envy,” and give everyone another tax break.

 

Time To Describe It The Way It Is

Reluctantly, we must confront reality. As contrary as it is to our values, affluent conservatives are blatantly conducting class warfare. It is affecting every element of our society, and the middle and lower classes are losing. During the 80s, rich nonworkers have won bigger, and workers have lost even bigger, than at any time since the depression. (For a definition of “nonworker” see the file on what work is.)

Our disgust with the rich and powerful is outrage, not envy. The only “envy” involved is purely the invention of conservatives. They have effectively deflected the public’s anger from themselves by labeling it “envy,” an unbecoming vice, and directing it at liberals and Democrats. 신용카드현금화

To try to argue against these charges of “class warfare” and “politics ofenvy” without mentioning them is demoralizing for ourselves and awimp-out. It also creates the impression that the charges are correct�or that liberal values are truly unfair.

Because of the negative connotations of these terms to most Americans, we need to pin them on the party that deserves them (changing “politics of envy” to “politics of greed”). It should be incredibly easy to do.

Feel free to download this material for personal, not-for-profit, use. If you duplicate it for others, attribute it to Charles M. Kelly, and with a link to this site. Print copies are still available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and used copies are widely available on the internet.

PREFACE

American capitalism was on a roll in 1962 when I started my management-consulting career. Our country had overcome a major depression, won and paid for a world war, created outstanding colleges and universities across the nation, financed an advancededucation for millions of GIs, and built a huge number of effective corporations. 신용카드현금화

People remembered the wretched excesses of the wealthy and powerful of earlier times and, through enlightened politicians and legislation, created an economic system that was fundamentally fair to both investors and workers. Not only did investors become wealthier and more numerous, but a typical working-class American—working only 40 hours a week—could support a family of four.

The income and wealth disparities that existed in the 1920s had been slightly reversed in the ’40s and ’50s, and were largely stagnant in the ’60s and ’70s. Except for minorities, this was probably the best of times ever for working-class citizens in a large country.

But that’s not all. American capitalism was beginning to have a sense of moral responsibility. Progressive managers believed that loyalty meant something, and that it was earned and owed, by both employee and owner. Large companies all across the country shifted their management strategy away from brute force, threats and intimidation, toward improving the “quality of work life.”

By building a climate of fairness and openness, they tried to create a sense of community. People could identify with, and take pride in, their organizations. They saw a close relationship between their own interests and the interests of their companies. 신용카드현금화

Many smaller companies succeeded and prospered because workers started with the business and accepted low wages and hard working conditions. The implied promise from the corporate executive or business owner was: “Work hard with me, grow with me, and you will share in my prosperity.”

Since they felt they had a stake in the business, millions of workers put their best efforts into “quality circles,” productivity improvement teams and special task forces to help their organizations become more efficient and profitable. When they expressed concern that their greater efficiency might lead to headcount reduction, they were promised that, no, that wouldn’t happen.

Management consultants like me, business owners, and high-level executives explained that as productivity and profits went up, as technology improved and as the economy grew, everyone would benefit. Work would become less stressful. People would have a better quality life at home with their families. Eventually, they would get more vacation time, better medical care and possibly a 35-hour workweek.

At the time, I did not believe that I was lying. After all, that had been the trend during the ’40s, ’50s, and into the ’60s. We had become a modern, enlightened country. We believed that honest work deserved to be fairly compensated—according to this country’s improving standard of living, and this country’s cost of living. 신용카드현금화

Then the 1980s arrived with a vengeance. Apologists for the wealthy and powerful sold a new set of values to the voting public that allowed pro-business, anti-worker politicians to get elected. They, in turn, changed our economy from one that benefited both investors and workers, to one that now benefits investors at the expense of workers.

Once the balance of power shifted totally in their own direction, the philosophy of conservative politicians, business owners, investors and high level executives mysteriously changed—back to the way it was pre-1930, when fairness and justice had no place in business decisions.

With their newly acquired set of old robber-baron values, investors can now confiscate the wealth that workers, professionals and low-level managers have produced over the decades and invest it outside our country—purely to benefit themselves, and with no regard for those who originally produced the wealth.

Today, the chief executive officer’s only responsibility is to himself and his stockholders. Workers have the same status as machinery and are steadily losing whatever human rights they once had. It’s a ruthlessly one-sided arrangement. No matter how much time and effort workers spend in improving equipment or work procedures, they don’t share in the benefits. They not only have no vested interest in the organization, their work doesn’t become any easier or less stressful. 신용카드현금화

It gets worse. As a work group becomes more effective, it increases the likelihood that some of their members will be fired, and those who remain will have to work harder than they did before, with incomes that don’t keep pace with inflation. Workers are told that “competition demands it”—despite record corporate profits and skyrocketing incomes for executives and investors. Of course, executives and stockholders exempt themselves from participating in the cost-cutting competition and get fabulously rich in the process.

Although we can’t legislate morality, we can legally require behaviors that voters consider moral. We also can destroy the legislation that protects those moral values, and that is exactly what pro-business politicians, both Republicans and conservative Democrats, have done.

As a result, between 1979 and 2000, the stock market rose over 1100%, but real wages for the bottom half of America didn’t keep up with inflation. As Business Week put it,

What’s happening is that a new class of left-behind workers is being created, encompassing a large portion of the workforce. They have jobs, sometimes with high salaries, but while their New Economy counterparts’ earnings soar, the left-behinds are struggling to post small real gains in income. That’s why, despite the overall prosperity, many households keep taking on more debt….

But for the foreseeable future, most Americans will be locked into Old Economy jobs without much hope of big income gains.1

Unfortunately, only about 20% of working Americans are employed in the “New Economy,” and, as will be pointed out later, their high incomes are coming at the expense of the 80% employed in the “Old Economy.” Of course, the investors and high-level corporate executives in the old economy make sure that they are largely immune to the sacrifices forced onto the low-level old economy workers who are stuck in this country’s labor market. By manipulating that market—as well as the technology, world trade and international investment markets—investors and executives actually benefit handsomely from their own industry’s decline in this country. 신용카드현금화

Despite all this, in 1999 wages for many workers started to rise faster than inflation—by about 3-miserly-percent. Better late than never, but that pitifully small increase is probably an indicator that our country’s one-sided economic boom is near its end.

The recent two-decade increase in the disparity in wealth and income between the ultra rich and the poor-and-middle-class is not, as the apologists claim, because the wealthy work harder or are more successful on a level playing field. It’s because corporations now have all the power, and they have conveniently shifted their values from fairness and reciprocal loyalty to survival of the fittest.

Right now, investors and business owners are the fittest, and fairly-paid workers are on the verge of extinction. Admittedly, there is a benefit to investors for their new found values: their high-level executives don’t have to be hypocrites any more by promising that they will be fair in their future dealings with workers. When employees are powerless, threat and intimidation are quite effective, and artful deception is not required. 출장마사지

So 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. Too many people blame

· The Internal Revenue Service (instead of the Congress that shifted tax burdens from the rich to the middle class),

· “Big Government” (instead of the Congress that passed the free-world-trade and anti-labor laws that sold out working-class Americans), and

· Liberals (who, admittedly, fought for the rights of minorities to compete with white males for jobs—but they are the same people who have always fought for anyone unfairly treated, including workers of all categories).

All that count in today’s economy are power and the laws that control incomes. As we enter the new millennium, voters had better figure out which politicians have the interests of our total society at heart, rather than just the interests of the “educated,” the established and emerging rich, and the powerful. 신용카드현금화

Charles M. Kelly

Tega Cay, South Carolina

April, 2000

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. 신용카드현금화

Chuck Kelly

I’m a retired management consultant, and I’ve seen from the inside what big corporations, with the help of conservative politicians, are doing to their middle and lower level employees.

Any management consultant will tell you that:

• The most successful engineers in a manufacturing plant are usually those who have the best rapport with workers. The engineer may have a superior theoretical background, but the long term employee knows the practicalities of what works and what doesn’t work.
• In quality and productivity improvement team meetings, some of the best ideas come from the hourly paid workers.
• New technologies are usually developed and tested via the implementation and involvement of experienced, conscientious employees, including ALL levels of the organization: workers on the line, engineers, professionals of all kinds and managers.

Over the past few decades, millions of these 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. 신용카드현금화

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:

• has the best access to raw materials,
• has the best location in the distribution chain,
• has developed the best technology,
• has trained the best managers and workers, and finally,
• offers the best product at the lowest price.

However, the free market must NOT reward those who would 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. 신용카드현금화

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 believe 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.

Education

The lack of education is another smokescreen for lack of principle and the naked use of power. Studies by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Association of Engineering Societies concluded that, for engineers forced to seek new jobs, “not only are permanent jobs scarce, but many of the vacant ones pay 10 to 50% less than such positions paid only a few years ago, and may also demand relocation.”

These are well educated people. Their problem: they invested too many years with the companies that fired them, their salaries had become too high—as defined by today’s standards of greed—and new replacements could be hired and trained for 10-50% less. 신용카드현금화

Professional jobs that can now be exported to third world countries include engineering, data processing, computer design and programming, science, and virtually any task that doesn’t require physical presence in the United States. All that counts to our modern corporate leaders is: in what country are wages and living standards the absolute worst for qualified professionals.

As bad as conditions are getting for many professionals, they are much worse for those who lack a formal education. We will always need people to collect our garbage, drive our trucks, work in our fields, empty the bedpans, clean up the hotel rooms, fix our cars, install the plumbing, and so on.

Unfortunately for these poor souls, 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.)

So, What Really Caused Income Disparity?

Values were quite different 35 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. 신용카드현금화

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.

As a result, after 1980, the stock market rose 400%, and real wages went gone down 15%. That’s not, as the apologists claim, because investors worked harder, or were more successful in the moral sense of fairness. It’s because corporations have conveniently shifted their values from fairness and reciprocal loyalty to “survival of the fittest.”

Right now, investors and business owners are the fittest, and fairly-paid workers are on the verge of extinction. Of course, there is a benefit to their new found values: investors and high level executives don’t have to be hypocrites any more by making the implied promise that they will be fair to their employees.

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 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. 신용카드현금화

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 2004 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

Class War in America can be obtained at Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Used copies are widely available on the internet. However, you can download the book free by going to Class War in America: the book.

Now go to:

Feel free to download this material for personal, not-for-profit, use. If you duplicate it for others, attribute it to Charles M. Kelly, and with a link to this site. Print copies are still available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and used copies are widely available on the internet. 신용카드현금화

THEBRIEF

Financial conservatives havebeen waging class warfare against working Americans for more than 20 years.Actually, they’ve been doing it for the entire century but they’ve beenespecially successful in the past 20 years, so that’s a convenient and relevantperiod for discussion. This is how they’ve been doing it, and why they’ve beenso successful:

Chapter 1. Traditionally, conservativeeconomists and politicians kept wages down by manipulating the prime interestrate. Whenever the economy grew to the point where unemployment went down andworkers had the power to negotiate for more money, the Federal Reserve simplyraised the interest rate.

Thismade it more expensive for businesses to borrow, the economy would cool down,unemployment would go up, and wages would stagnate or go down—just as theeconomists and politicians intended.

Chapter 2. Conservative economists andpoliticians explained that the reason for their actions is that rising wagescause inflation, which hurts everyone. Therefore, they should keep workers’wages from going up. In fact, whenever they refer to inflation, they make it apoint to call it “wage inflation.” 신용카드현금화

Theytotally ignored, however, the inflationary effects of the rising incomes ofbusiness owners, corporate executives, investors, etc. They also chose toignore the fact that businesses could share more of their outlandish profitswith workers without increasing prices. Indeed, for the past 20 years, ithasn’t been wage inflation; it’s been profit inflation.

Chapter 3. Now there is a great debategoing on. Some still feel that the economic growth of the past 20 years shouldbe slowed by raising the prime interest rate. After all, unemployment is atrecord low levels. Others feel it’s no longer necessary to raise the prime,because wages can be kept down in other ways that are less detrimental toprofits—such as exporting jobs overseas, destroying unions, using temporary orcontract workers, and so on.

What’s striking about this public debate is that all parties arearguing about the best way to ensure that investors, business owners, andexecutives get wealthier. Virtually no one is concerned about the welfare ofthe working-class Americans who are most directly and personally harmed byeither of these strategies. Under either approach, workers make all thesacrifices, and investors and the rich reap most of the benefits.

Chapter 4. Amongmany of the empty promises made to workers is that their wages will go up ifthe economy grows. This is probably the most pernicious lie foisted onto theAmerican voter when it comes time to cut taxes on the wealthy. Their propagandaspin goes like this: Cutting taxes will cause the economy to grow; added growthwill lower unemployment; lower unemployment makes workers scarcer; and whenworkers are scarce, wages will go up. 신용카드현금화

Problem is, as the past 20 years have demonstrated, economic growthhas little to do with higher wages. It’s all about power and who has it. Rightnow, investors and the wealthy have all the power and workers have none.

Chapter 5. Thebiggest single reason economic growth hasn’t increased wages is thatconservatives have deliberately pitted American workers against brutalizedworkers in Third World countries, to drive down all wages in the U.S. Whenever unemployment goes down and workersstart demanding more money, all a corporation has to do is threaten to closedown operations and move overseas.

That usually stops any embarrassing discussion about higher wages—ata time of record corporate profits. And obviously, if employees refuse to beintimidated, companies actually carry out their threats to leave the country.Then, the workers who lose their jobs enter the marketplace and exert downwardpressures on the wages of other workers, even in the jobs that can’t beexported to other countries.

Chapter 6. The“worker” classification is getting bigger. Jobs of engineers, Ph.D. scientists,computer specialists, etc. are now being sent overseas to people who makeone-third as much. Today, it’s more accurate to refer to investors and workers, instead of management and workers,professionals and workers, or even “skilled workers” and workers. Those whocontrol the money can, and do, control everyone else—as low-level managers,doctors, engineers, architects, and other professionals are belatedly findingout. As political power shifts to investors, so does economic power.

And as their power increases, the economic system becomes increasinglybiased in favor of those with money and against those who develop and producethe actual wealth of our country: land, buildings, products, and services.

Chapter 7. Conservativesproclaim in their talk shows and editorials that unions are bad for workers. Onthe other hand, in their news articles they cite the declining power of unionsas a major reason for wage stagnation and poor working conditions. In fact, thedeclining power of unions is one of their most frequently used arguments fornot having to raise the prime interest rate.

It’s especially interesting to note that skilled professionals, suchas doctors, dentists, and college professors, are beginning to discover thebenefits, and the necessity, of collective bargaining. In the economy of today,power is everything. Justice and fairness, and even the long-term economichealth of our society, count for absolutely nothing.

Chapter 8. Afterdecades of economic growth, increasing worker productivity, technologicaldevelopment, and higher incomes for the wealthy, wages and working conditionshave degenerated for the bottom half of Americans. Instead of getting betterwith all these advancements, as promised, the opposite has happened.

In fact, the United States has joined the Third World in victimizingworkers. Many workplaces have become more dangerous, more likely to causechronic disabilities and more dulling to the senses. For many workers, ourcountry has regressed to the pre-1930 era.

Chapter 9. Thereis no mystery about why corporations and businesses have all the power today.The coalition from workers’ hell, Republicans and conservative Democrats, madeit happen. They destroyed much of the power of workers to organize by passingthe Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. More recently—with the passage of NAFTA and establishing the WTO,and a host of anti-worker actions—they gave workers the coup de grace by making them compete with brutalized Third Worldworkers. 신용카드현금화

As Newt Gingrich once claimed in TheWall Street Journal, the price of labor is now set in South China. Itmatters not to conservatives that American workers live in this country, with ourstandard of living, and our cost ofliving.

Chapter 10. Ifthere is any confusion left about our present economy, it’s why Americanworking-class citizens have been so thoroughly conned into voting for theconservative politicians who made it all happen. The most plausible explanationis that there has been a proliferation of “think tanks” that are funded bywealthy right-wing zealots. With almost unlimited money, they are able to stafftheir organizations with people who are willing to intentionally distort theimplications of financial data and economic events. Their most effective liesare those that use accurate data to lead to inappropriate and falseconclusions.

Chapter 11. The1993 Deficit Reduction legislation is a classic example of the kinds of factualdistortions that enable conservatives to con voters into making falseconclusions that are injurious to their own interests. Even The Wall Street Journal described howRepublicans misled the public about whom the 1993 legislation would affect andhow. Contrary to common belief, only the top 1.2% of Americans got anysignificant tax increases. And, as most people now know—and the Journal pointed out—raising taxes on thewealthy in 1993 is a major reason for the lower deficits of the late 1990s.

Chapter 12. Thereisn’t the remotest similarity between those who the Republicans claim willbenefit from their tax cuts and those who actually benefit. In fact, theydeliberately deceive the public about the regressive nature of their specifictax changes on working-class Americans. They also ignore the loss of necessarygovernment services—which benefit mostly middle- and low-income workers—whentax cuts for the wealthy reduce government revenues.

Chapter 13. Theprivatization of Social Security is another conservative strategy that willbenefit the wealthy at the expense ofworking Americans. Social Security was intended to ensure a safe retirement,financed by current workers making decent incomes.Despite articles describing stock fraud, “boiler rooms,” insidertrading—and how hard it is for anyone with less than $1,000,000 to get goodinvestment advice—Republicans want workers to compete with the Wall Streetsharks when they invest their retirement funds.

The sure winners in privatizing Social Security will be stock brokers,experienced investors, and the entire banking and investment industry. Forworkers who are unsophisticated in the economics of Wall Street, the futuredoes not look good. The best we can hope for is that when they answer a coldcall—during dinner, from a broker—the broker will be a conscientiousrepresentative with a reputable firm who is not under pressure from his boss togenerate high commissions.

Chapter 14. Anothermajor propaganda effort of conservatives is aimed at destroying Americans’belief in their own government. Central to this strategy is their incessantcriticism of governmental officials, while claiming that privatebusinesspersons would serve the public’s interests much better. A review of thebehaviors of American executives and businesspersons suggests that the oppositeis true.

When you read about the antics of these people—in their ownconservative publications—you have to ask the question: Can these corporatebureaucrats actually manage our economy and society better than “governmentbureaucrats”? The number of articles describing corporate greed, mismanagement,incompetence, and outright fraud—of huge proportions—is massive.

Chapter 15. Freedomis central to the success of our country.Problem is, which are the freedoms that really count? And who bestprotects the freedoms that really count? Corporations? Or democraticallyelected representatives? The number of examples of bad corporate behaviors inthe absence of sensible regulations is overwhelming. Well-financedconservatives use their money to buy the necessary politicians, judges andlegislators to ensure that corporations and businesses have the freedom to takeruthless advantage of workers and the general public.

Chapter 16. Glorifyinggreed and materialism—and minimizing fairness and justice—has become a staplein the conservative arsenal for taking control of America’s political base.Think about it. Many voters seem more concerned about the private sex life ofpoliticians than about whether or not they lie to the public about economic andsocial issues.

For example, Bill Bennett’s Bookof Virtues is a great book, but he left out fairness and justice. He chosevirtues that emphasize hard work and charity, but not fair treatment ofworkers. It’s typical of the subtle conservative propaganda effort to equatewealth with virtue, and to relegate the concepts of fairness and justice intothe dustbin of values.

Chapter 17. Thereis a growing new American royal class. Can working Americans afford to supportall these people who are getting locked into an extravagant life-style? A stylethat can be maintained only if workers’ wages remain low and taxes remainregressive. By cashing in the wealth that workers created from the 1940s to the1980s, conservatives produced 20 years of prosperity for those who knew how totake unprincipled advantage of our new economic system. But we can’t afford tocontinue this fire sale of wealth much longer before the bills come due.

Chapter 18. Timeis getting short. The income and wealth disparity between the top 20% ofAmericans and everyone else is growing into a vast chasm. Having been conned byconservatives that “wealth is not a zero-sum game,” voters assume that this growingproblem will eventually be to their own benefit, since “wealth trickles down.”

Big mistake. Wealth is azero-sum game, at both the front end—in the allocation of income, and the backend—the spending of income. In effect, the more wealth other people have, theless you have. This becomes important in an economic downturn, especially forthose who have not built up substantial savings.

And there are danger signs on the horizon: wages are starting tocreep up, which, in this “new economy” that conservatives have created,threatens corporate profits, the stock market, and the economic and socialhealth of our country.

Chapter 19. Workersof America, Unite!—Because Financial Conservatives Already Have, and They OwnCongress and the Presidency. Never vote for a Republican. In the primaries,pick a liberal Democrat over a conservative Democrat. Always vote for aprogressive populist—preferably one who is not having an affair with hissecretary (but if that’s your only choice, he’s better than a Republican orconservative Democrat).

Progressive populists actually believe that we need government toprotect the freedoms that count. An effective government—with honest,not-paid-for politicians—is our only defense against corporate executives whohave no moral standards for the treatment of workers or the general public.

A Qualification and an Aside

Qualification: Copyright laws and limited space requirethe use of brief excerpts of often very lengthy articles. I did my best tofairly represent the sense of each excerpt quoted. However, if you question theaccuracy or intent of the clearly footnoted excerpts in the following chapters,or my interpretation of them, you can easily look up the originals in thelibrary. Or, better yet, you can do your own research. It’s easy. Just:

1. Go to your local library and sit down at its computer.

2. On the opening screen, check “subject.”

3. Look up the categories of: “prime rate,” “FederalReserve,” “inflation,” “unions,” “tax legislation,” and “wages,” plus any othereconomic categories you are interested in.

4. Pick any time period since 1980.

5. Select articles that are from the same conservativefinancial publications cited in this book.

6. Read the actual articles.

Then note how, with monotonous repetition, financialconservatives describe how they are keeping wages from going up, gettinganti-labor legislation passed in Congress, destroying unions, pitting workersagainst each other and, in general, waging class warfare against Americanworkers. Their policies always benefit corporations and the wealthy, and alwaysat the expense of workers.

Aside: Anyone can say anything about anybody. Liberalscall conservatives liars and demagogues, and conservatives call liberals liarsand demagogues. But that doesn’t mean that the truth is midway between the two.It only means that—with modern,sophisticated techniques of propaganda available to everyone—the voting publicmust develop the ability to see through the smoke and mirrors that aremassively produced every day.

Consider this book a study guide for your owninvestigation. Decide for yourself what to believe about our economy, ourelected officials and our political parties. Follow the steps above and do yourown self-directed reading. You’ll find that America’s financial conservativesare saying exactly what I have reported in the following pages.

It’s a matter of public record. There is no way they cancover it up.

I hoped John Kerry would win, because he was better prepared than George Bush to take us through the next four years. But I’m not as upset as most Democrats seem to be.

Kerry’s problem is that he’s not nearly good enough to overcome the horrendous mistakes the Bush administration made in Iraq and in our economy. That would take a true Democrat, like a Roosevelt or a Truman. 신용카드현금화

The Democratic Party’s problems began when it decided that the only way to win an election was to act like moderate Republicans. It has yet to sink in to their thick skulls that voters, given the choice between a true Republican and an ersatz Republican, will usually pick the genuine article.

As a result, the electorate had no true alternatives in this election — like a Ralph Nader, Howard Dean, or Dennis Kucinich. Any of these would have taken the least disastrous approach to getting us out of an impossible situation in Iraq, and would have adopted the kinds of economic policies that Roosevelt had the courage to pursue in the 1930s. Kerry wasn’t willing to do that.

In order to sound not too different from the “decisive” Bush, Kerry committed himself to get tough on terrorism by pouring more of our human and financial resources into the pursuit of an impossible goal: the creation of a fundamentalist Islamic democracy. Even under the best of foreseeable outcomes, he would have created the new premier host country for every variety of crackpot terrorist on the globe. 신용카드현금화

I’ve no doubt that Kerry would have led us out of Iraq better than Bush will, but it still would be the disaster that past mistakes have already assured. Then, Republicans would blame Kerry for “not staying the course,” and, no matter how much money or American lives spent, it would have not have been enough. And the Bush administration would claim that nothing was ever their fault.

I’m guessing that before too long, Iraq will spin out of control, and we’ll have no reasonable options left. And Bush will have some tall explaining to do to an enraged American public.

Then, there’s the economy. There’s no way we can continue cutting taxes, increasing our national debt, and exporting our best jobs to other countries without disastrous results. Kerry betrayed his unwillingness to address these problems with the comment: “I’m not one of those Democrats, er, people, who believe in redistributing the wealth.” In other words, except for a little tinkering around the edges, the present distribution of wealth from middle- and low-income Americans to our new aristocracy will continue unabated. 신용카드현금화

Erskine Bowles wimped out the same way in his TV spot: “I’m not your typical Democrat.” Message: I’m really a moderate Republican, and I’m not going to do anything “liberal,” like seriously raising the taxes on those who are profiting most from our economy. And, although working-class Americans are making all the sacrifices to get us this booming economy — for the well connected — I’ll cut funding for government programs specifically designed to benefit them.

Kerry and Bowles must have forgotten that to finance World War II, Franklin Roosevelt raised taxes on those who would profit most from it — to 88 percent in the top bracket. It stayed at 88 percent for the next 20 years. Not only did it not destroy investment and cost us jobs, it gave us 20 of the most prosperous years for middle- and low-income Americans, in our history. That’s where our vibrant middle class came from. 출장마사지

Roosevelt understood that you stimulate the economy by getting money into the hands of consumers — who always spend it, usually in this country — rather into the hands of wealthy investors who may or may not invest it. Why should investors put money into new businesses if consumers don’t have money to buy?

As it is now, if an investor is going to make a new investment, it’d better not be in the United States. Even if it becomes profitable, his competitors will undercut his wage costs by locating in China or India. Indeed, that’s a major reason cited in a recent Wall Street Journal article for the weak job recovery, despite all the massive tax cuts for our wealthiest Americans.

So, although Kerry would have been better for the economy, he wouldn’t have been nearly good enough. It would still be the disaster that is already assured, absent any “liberal” solutions. And, naturally, Republicans would blame him for the weak economy because he raised taxes on a few of the rich.

Harry Truman once said “if someone is hitting you on the head, you’d better figure out who’s doing it.” Sometime within the next year, the other half of the voting pubic will begin doing just that.

Charles M. Kelly is a retired management consultant living in Tega Cay, S.C., and author of “The Destructive Achiever; Power and Ethics in the American Corporation” and “Class War in America.” Write him at kellycm@wheat-kangaroo-394360.hostingersite.com

Posted on Thu, Aug. 24, 2006email thisprint this

From Chuck Kelly of Charlotte, a retired consultant and author of “The Destructive Achiever: Power and Ethics in the American Corporation” and “Class War in America”:

After quoting Ronald Reagan’s famous comment “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” Tom Ashcraft noted that “he was right then, and he’s right now.” That view is popular among many people, but is doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. 신용카드현금화

Reagan’s comment suggests a false premise and detracts from a rational discussion of society’s problems. Fact is, all societies are always governed all the time. The issue isn’t government or no government, big government or small government; it’s good vs. bad government. It’s who’s governing, how did they get their power, in whose interests are they governing, and what are the results of their governing?

Today’s classic example is Iraq. If its democratically elected government is unwilling or unable to govern effectively, then competing militia groups seize control and govern according to their own powers and desires. A nation in chaos is still a governed society — it’s just by the wrong people, for the wrong purposes, and with disastrous consequences.

So, yes, government is often the cause of our major problems, but it is often the solution as well. Government is the cause of our problems when, for example, it chooses to ignore or even distort the science behind global warming, and only an informed and active government can be the catalyst for solving the problem of excessive greenhouse gases.

When George W. Bush assumes powers previously held by the courts or a democratically elected Congress, he’s not relieving the public of excessive government; he’s just transferring governing power to himself. That could be very good if he’s wise and right, but it’s horribly bad if he’s arrogant and wrong.

Libertarian think tanks, such as the John Locke Foundation and the Cato Institute, represent those who want to use their money and power to govern society in their own interests. To the extent that they can make government absent or ineffective in our society, they can step in and control (govern) conditions affecting us all.

Some examples? If government doesn’t set minimum environmental standards, corporations do. If government doesn’t set work safety and minimum wage standards, corporations do. If government doesn’t adequately fund public schools, road maintenance, crime and fire prevention with taxes, they degenerate. And so on, for virtually every major issue in our society.

Sure, government can pass some stupid legislation and waste taxpayer dollars. But not passing enough of the right legislation and not raising enough taxes to solve society’s problems and, especially, to prevent future problems — can be even worse. 신용카드현금화

The anti-government argument suggests that we’d be better off by getting government out of the business of governing, increasing the ability of powerful private interests to set standards and make the rules, and doggedly cutting taxes, primarily for the rich. Those are the last things we need, as the Bush Administration is making clear.

— For The Record offers commentaries from various sources. The views are the writer’s, and not necessarily those of the Observer editorial board.

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CHUCK KELLY

Special to the Observer

Connect the dots between two articles in the July 13 Observer and you get a classic picture of today’s U.S. economy. 신용카드현금화

“Dow rockets to record” described how the previous day’s stock gains “come after a year of impressive gains for stocks.” Focusing on the other end of the wealth scale, “Housing squeeze getting tighter” noted that “The lack of affordable homes for poor families is the nation’s No. 1 housing problem and undermines the stability and security of families and communities nationwide.”

These news items not only highlight the growing disparity between rich and poor, they bring into question some of our most cherished economic axioms.

A finite world

Apologists for the wealthy and powerful claim that wealth is not a zero-sum game, and they’ve convinced the public that the huge incomes of the wealthiest Americans are irrelevant . They even claim that the more money the wealthiest Americans make, the more wealth will trickle down .Sure, money is unlimited and it can multiply like crazy, and devalued money does trickle down. But our earth has finite resources — like land, water and air — and our nation is limited in its ability to produce products, especially the most desirable ones.

The popular fiction that it doesn’t matter to you how much money other people have ignores the obvious. We live in a world of auction markets. As those with more money increase the demand for housing, gasoline, scarce foods, medical care, education, etc., those with less money get priced out of the market.

All across this country working-class Americans are finding that they can no longer afford to buy or rent decent housing near where they work, especially if they live in a desirable area (clean air, low crime, good schools). 신용카드현금화

Wealthy investors are buying a few houses with a view, tearing them down, and building a single mansion . And they’re doing it in multiple states and countries.

But that’s just the beginning of the story. They also make sure that real estate represents a significant part of their investment portfolio. It’s not unusual to see an ad in the classified section of a newspaper like this one:

FOR SALE: 27 rental houses, singly or as a total package. Excellent rental histories, great tax advantages. Retiring. 555-3578.

Real estate is one of the greatest creators of wealth for those who have it or can get it. It’s also one of the greatest creators of poverty for those who find themselves priced out of the market, either as buyers or renters.

The exploding wealth and income gap is no accident, and is not a result of the movement of the stars or some unexpected economic fluke. It is the direct result of economic policies that are designed to redistribute wealth from those who actually handle and produce products and services to investors whose major business is simply moving money around. Those who serve investors and money managers, like top-level corporate executives, are also on the gravy train.

Our federal policies of manipulating the prime interest rate (to make sure the unemployment rate keeps “wage inflation” from occurring), our expansion of legal and illegal immigration, globalization and a host of other actions are deliberately designed to keep wages from going up, thus maximizing profits.

It’s always zero

If wages don’t go up along with rising corporate profits, then the Dow rockets and investors become wealthier faster. If workers make more money, the businesses and corporations make less profit and the investors don’t become so rich so fast. Corporate profits always equal income minus expenses (including labor). Subtract the left side of the equation from the right side and you always get zero. 신용카드현금화

There is no getting around it; wealth is a zero-sum activity at both the front end (when income is distributed) and at the back end (when products and services are sold in an auction market.)

Right now our government’s economic policies favor the super-rich, and they’re using unfair advantages to demand too great a share of our nation’s resources and productivity.

Chuck Kelly is a retired management consultant in Charlotte and is author of The Destructive Achiever; Power and Ethics in the American Corporation, and Class War in America. He can be reached at kellycm2@bellsouth.

In an Observer exclusive, Rich Rothacker reported that Wachovia is looking at outsourcing human resources functions as part of an initiative to reduce expenses, just as Charlotte’s Bank of America has already done.

Predictions of a “harder” corporate management philosophy are sadly becoming true, and now dominate America’s corporate culture. 신용카드현금화

Sometime in the early 1980s, I attended a meeting of the Association of Management Consultants in Atlanta. In one session, we described the kinds of consulting we were doing and the kinds of requests that corporations were making. Our conclusion: “soft” consulting was out, and “hard” consulting was in.

Soft consulting is basically the human resources development approach that recognizes an organization as an association of human beings, all of whom contribute to the production of a quality product or service at the lowest cost. For best results, it is necessary to pay all levels of employees a decent wage, with periodic increases in return for loyal and conscientious service, and to treat all levels with respect — seeking, listening to, and reacting to their suggestions, questions and concerns. 신용카드현금화

This isn’t easy. It takes actual management skill to effectively deal with large numbers of people. It also takes a genuine commitment to the ethical treatment of everyone in the organization. Otherwise, you simply won’t get the kind of teamwork that is necessary for a truly competitive organization.

Hard consulting is different, with drastically different effects on the corporation and on society itself. It’s based purely on cost reduction — not true efficiency — and it fits perfectly with Milton Friedman’s frequently quoted justification for management and investor greed: “So the question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer is, no they do not.”

Lower level employees are not seen as human beings with families to support, or even as legitimate members of the organization. They are merely costs to be minimized, no matter how much they have previously contributed to the corporation’s success. Ethical issues of fairness and justice to lower-level employees have no role in top management’s decisions — all that counts is the return for shareholders and increased bonuses for the top executives. 신용카드현금화

This hard management style is changing the nature of our society. We’re becoming a nation of highly paid investment bankers — and workers who must compete with each other in the race to the bottom in wages and working conditions.

Prior to the outsourcing rage, corporations correctly thought that the best way to improve the bottom line was to build a loyal, educated, motivated workforce.

That’s simply no longer true. The easiest, most reliable way to realize quick and significant profit improvement is to transfer corporate activities to other American firms with lower moral standards for the treatment of employees, or to countries with terrible labor records and much lower wages.

For example, Ford Motor Co. has already outsourced many of its manufacturing, technical development and clerical functions. But, more importantly, hard consultants are now arguing that it shouldn’t even be in the business of assembling its cars. This is called the “asset-light” strategy, made famous by Enron. Top corporate executives transfer the headaches of dealing with people — and the risks of actually manufacturing a product — to others who compete with each other to deliver products as cheaply as possible. 신용카드현금화

To the extent that executives outsource their organization’s functions, they become, in effect, investment bankers instead of managers. And when their ex-employees suffer lower wages and worse working conditions in their new jobs, the executives can still claim the ethical high ground. They are not responsible for the actions of employers who have lower standards for the treatment of employees.

Of course, the outsourcing of human resources functions is doubly bad. The outsourced employees will have trouble finding jobs of equal desirability, especially those with longer tenure. But, just as important, other employees will lose their representatives in management — the ones whose jobs include maintaining the quality of work life for all levels of the organization. This function will be turned over to outside people who don’t have active contact with day-to-day operations.

There are undoubtedly many reasons for the exploding gap in wealth and income between America’s rich and poor, and even between the rich and our dwindling middle-class — but outsourcing, and the switch from soft to hard management, has to be a major one. It’s the natural outgrowth of a philosophy that top management’s only concern is profit and the financial return to their shareholders.

Chuck Kelly is a retired management consultant living in Tega Cay, S.C., and author of “The Destructive Achiever: Power and Ethics in the American Corporation” and “Class War in America.” Write him at kellycm@wheat-kangaroo-394360.hostingersite.com.