I've Had It With You Corporations and What You Don't Pay Your People

A lot has been said and written and posted on Facebook and Twitter and such about the minimum wage and how you can't live off it. You can't.

To hear some people talk, raising the minimum wage would only benefit the pimply teen at the burger joint, and just give him more money to buy dope.

Unfortunately, the average minimum wage worker is not 17, but 35. And more likely to be a woman raising children. Look it up if you don't believe me.

Then these same people freak out about how prices will rise if corporations raise the minimum wage. Oh, my, God, we might have to pay fifteen cents more for that burger.

Or, on the other hand, the CEO and his top minions could take a pay cut. The average CEO's pay - compensation and perks included - is now over 300% more than his lowest paid worker. This is up from 46% in 1983, and down from over 400% during the tech boom in the 90's.

Several reasons have been given for the inequality of pay between CEO's and their lowest paid workers. The demise of unions, the rise of sending jobs overseas, shareholders wanting to retain the best CEO so their profits will stay high, and just plain greed.

None of these individually explain it. The world has gotten extremely complicated in the last 40 years or more, and there are few clear cut answers to society's problems. Sometimes I think those in charge count on that.

If they can keep us confused as to the facts surrounding our pitiful wages, not to mention fighting each other over whether or not we should get a higher minimum wage, they can laugh all the way to the bank.

Shame on them.

Shame on Walmart and other corporations paying their workers so little that they qualify for food stamps.

Some corporations are getting it, finally. The CEO of Costco found that his training costs were greatly reduced if he paid his workers a decent wage. They never left! And Dan Price, the young CEO of Gravity Payments, cut his own salary from one million a year to $70,000 to insure he could pay his people extremely well. His profits are soaring.

I would imagine that theft by employees would go down as well. Imagine that.

Come on, corporations - get smart. If you take care of your people, they will take care of you. So many of your people are already taking care of you. Please don't continue to let them down.

I've Had It With You Junk Food Producers

Every time I go into a store, I have to walk past rows and rows of candy, cookies, cupcakes, pies, ice cream, crackers,all kinds of packaged junk food that is not good for me.

There are frozen dinners containing more chemicals than actual food. Packed macaroni and cheese that has powdered cheese and chemicals. Cakes of every imaginable style and flavor, some with garish decoration. Breads of all types, so many you have to be a real sleuth at reading labels to buy the one or two kinds that have healthy ingredients.

I once counted seventy-two different candy bars in one small convenience store.

Consuming this junk has contributed to the obesity epidemic and all sorts of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer. You know, things that will kill you.

You know, I don't really believe you people are out to kill us. I do believe you do not care.

You just produce it, piously saying you are only giving people what we want.

HORSEFEATHERS!

You produce it because you know we will buy it - because we are weak. You display it in tempting ways. There are even college courses on marketing the crap.

You do not produce what we want. You make what you know we will buy, and you do not care that you are contributing to our demise.

Sadly, a ban on the junk smacks of censorship and government control, things I do not care for.

Maybe you could wall off a section of the store and put the junk behind there, and people would have to ask to go in to buy it, like porn - but no, that wouldn't work, either.

How did it get so bad? What can we do now? Thanks a lot, you creepy manufacturers and marketers. Wish you'd grow a conscience.

Just Say No to Junk Food?

We will be doing our best to do so.

I've Had It With Some of You Religious Folks

The whirlwind of Christmas and all is over. The season of brotherly love can be packed away with the Christmas ornaments, and some of you will go back to hating each other again.

You will go back to feeling superior to those folks in other religions and denominations, so certain yours is THE ONLY WAY.

I don't think so. Fails the logic test. And any God worth worshiping, a Creator who made our minds, and who did not say turn them off, is not so narrow-minded as you make Him out to be.

I've watched and listened for a lot of years, and seen people scream, yell and kill each other to prove their religion was right. What are they afraid of? Hate comes from fear.

As far as I can tell, we all became aware as children, babies, that we are here on this Earth. We gradually see that we are separate from our caregivers. Beyond that - we haven't got a clue.

We don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt why we are here or how we got here. And we darn sure do not know what we are supposed to do. So, we guess.

Some of us guess better than others. Some of us have wonderful, safe lives and never have to worry about much. They have nice, safe beliefs and never challenge them.

Others are born into hellish surroundings, scrabbling for their very existence. I wondered once as a child if it were not set up that way - poor people in Africa were there to give rich Americans something to do. But that would be wrong - wouldn't it?

Fact is - we don't know. But we don't like not knowing. So we make up elaborate explanations for it all.

There is no incontrovertible proof to support any religion over another. Not as far as I know, and I've been looking for it for years. Does it make logical sense that only a few people got the memo? That they know exactly what is going on? No. It does not.

I've had it with you people who smugly flaunt your knowledge and make others feel small thereby. Who only give to the less fortunate because you think it will get you a better seat in Heaven - which you made up. Who think it is okay to kill (choose one):the Infidels, Rag heads, Niggers, Abortion Doctors, Christians, Jews,.....

Stop trying to make yourselves okay by making others wrong. I know you are scared and confused. We all are. You have chosen the wrong path to make yourself feel secure.

It's as if we are allowed, in our separate groups, so get a glimpse of God, of a tiny piece of the infinite puzzle that is Life. The Creator knows we are different and what scares one will inspire another. So He (or She, we don't even know) lets us construct elaborate rituals and temples and hymns and smells and bells, and it's all just fine - until we insist that our small piece is the whole puzzle, and laugh and ridicule the other groups for daring to think they had the whole puzzle. And then kill them for making us feel bad.

Stop it. It's wrong.

Put your pieces together. See what the others know. Come out of your caves, your temples, your mosques, your churches. Talk to one another. Listen to one another, more importantly. Their piece of the puzzle is no threat to yours - nor should yours be to them.

Put your puzzle pieces together. The whole puzzle is from the Creator, who loves His creations very much. Imagine that kind of love. Deep, abiding,neverending, all enfolding love from a Creator we only can imagine is like the best parent ever. Imagine that - you are so loved. Then love each other, as best you can. That's the only thing that consistently makes sense in this confusing mess we call Life.

We are Created. We are Here. We Don't Know Why. We Are Loved. We Must Help Each Other Figure It Out.

Love Each Other.

All else is details.

Way Too Much Stuff

I realized the other day that a few things had changed in the forty years I have been paying attention to society (before that I was a teenager and pretty much in my own navel). I looked around and here's what I saw - you see if you can guess what it means.

Lots and lots of storage facilities.
Very big houses being built on tiny plots of land.
Rent-to-Own places everywhere.
Ditto for Title Loan establishments.
Lots of stores, and inside them, lots of stuff.

We have so much stuff we have to rent spaces to stuff it. Didn't happen back a while ago. Wonder what started us thinking we had to have all this stuff?

Could blame the advertising on television, telling us we "deserved" that new color wide screen TV.
Could blame the people who made all the stuff and got it put on the shelves for us to want.
Could blame the neighbors, those "Joneses" we all have to keep up with so our stuff won't look raggedy next to theirs.

But the bottom line is, WE fell for it. They put it out there, all shiny and tempting, but we bought it, lugged it home, and plugged it in.

It didn't seem like a bad thing at the time. Didn't we deserve these things? We worked hard for them! We thought it would make us happy!

I'm not any less guilty than anyone else, but I did realize a few things.

Those big houses are way too much to dust, especially if you are both working to pay for it.
Storage facilities separate you from your stuff, so if you have to put stuff there, you don't need that stuff.
Stuff can own you. You have to do the aforementioned dusting, as well as repairing, maintaining and yelling at the kids to get off it.
Rent to Own places charge way too much interest. It's a tax on the impatient.
If you have to pawn your title to the car, you are in debt way too deep.

Going through a mall now makes me dizzy. Who ever asked us if we wanted this much choice? Choosing toilet paper alone is a several hour affair.

And buying clothes? Please! If I end up getting dizzy from playing "Ring Around the Display Racks", someone will pay.

You spend your first fifty years getting stuff, then at some point you spend the rest of your life getting rid of it. Why get it in the first place?

Yeah, I know. I did it, too. I'm in the process of unloading most of it onto my kids, so I can live the Simple Life.

I'll just go to other people's houses if I feel the urge for stuff; look at their stuff.

Then I'll go home to my simple place and not dust.

I Have Had It With You Politicians

Being President, a Senator, or a Representative used to be a very respectable job. Mothers told their children that if they studied hard, they could grow up to be President. Now? Not only is it not true that anyone can be President, but most mothers are not so sure they'd want their kid to become President.

It's because you politicians are not doing right.

Now, I'm just a simple old woman, but even I know enough about human nature to tell you many of your schemes are just plain stupid. You write bills and laws up there in Congress and we have to live with them. You act like you do not have a clue what will happen.

As long as it looks good on paper, and plays well on television, and GETS YOU RE-ELECTED, you'll pass anything and damn the consequences.

I'm on to you people. It's not about being a public servant, it's about what you can get for yourselves.

Sure, there may be some of you who are sincere and smart - I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the rest of you. Either you can't think your way out of a paper bag, or you're crooked.

Here's an example: In 1990, Congress passed and the President signed into law a 10 percent luxury tax on yachts, furs, jewelry and expensive cars, hoping to raise revenue from the rich. The yacht portion was repealed in 1993, because while it did raise revenues, it also sent a few yacht makers in the United States into bankruptcy, and forced them to lay off hundreds of workers, which cost the government a lot of money in unemployment compensation. Why? Wealthy purchasers simply did not buy, or bought overseas. You couldn't have seen that coming?

You people love to pit us against each other, rich versus poor. We didn't have the kind of class envy we have now until you changed laws that let the wealthy predator types cash in. More on that in another post.

You demonize "the rich" as if they are not major creators of jobs. But they are, not only by financing companies and hiring workers, but - because they buy stuff! Thereby giving the middle a lower class people jobs making and selling that stuff.

I will talk about the rich ones with no social conscience later.

In a puzzling move, the current President proposed a tax on corporate jets. Either you are not well-read or advised, sir, or you have another agenda. Creating jobs and reducing the deficit will not happen by soaking the rich.

Now I'm talking to the voters: People, do your research! Who is lying to us, and why? Follow the money.

Yeah, it's complicated. Use your brains, not your emotions. Or don't complain.

I Was There When It Started Going To Hell

I watched society's standards slip, little by little, starting in the late sixties and early seventies. Little, tiny changes that finally added up to the crap you see today.

The really sad thing is that my sons didn't believe me when I first told them there were no guns in school when I attended in the fifties and sixties. No cops either. They have never known the absence of possible fatal violence in school.

Oh,some of the boys duked it out behind the gym, and the male teachers would come out and throw them into separate corners, then make them apologize. Girls didn't fight physically. No one had a gun. Seriously.

Also in my high school, the restrooms were labeled 'Girls' and 'Boys', not 'Men' and 'Women'. A small thing, you say? Not really. It meant that we weren't adults and we were not in charge.

We had a dress code. Stop rolling your eyes. I see that.

Yes, we were made to wear such awful things as dresses - no shorter than two inches above the knee - and boys had to tuck in their collared shirts. Hair was of a certain length, no facial hair on the boys. Girls couldn't wear low-cut or too-tight blouses.

It started changing, and I'm afraid I pushed for some of it. Some of my friends and I went to see the girl's advisor one winter day. We were tired of our legs being cold as we changed classes (our high school had outdoor hallways.)

So we asked her if there was a rule about how short the dresses had to be.

She replied, "They can't be more than two inches above the knee.."

"No,ma'am," we replied. "The other way. How short do they have to be?"

She flipped through the rules and allowed as how there was no rule for that. We smiled sweetly and left.

The next day, about six of us came to school with ankle length skirts on.

"Why are you girls dressed like that? You look outlandish!"

More sweet smiles. "Our legs are cold, and you won't let us wear pants."

The next week, apparently disturbed by our continuing to wear the Granny dresses, they ruled that we could wear pants. They had to be nice looking pantsuits, now, no jeans....

We were disappointed that they gave in so fast, and a little disconcerted. We had pushed, and they gave in!

A few years later, the dress codes simply fell by the wayside. And so did a lot of adult authority over teenagers. Big mistake.

You ever heard the old phrase, "Give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile"?

People are like that. Kids want what they want. Adults have become pandering ninnies, afraid of hurting feelings, while the kids end up coming to school half-nekkid and with guns.

And you dummies who are now demanding we stuff the kids into uniforms don't even know why you want it. You give all sorts of reasons, but the real reason should be: you need to take charge again and put some order into the chaos you have created.

You ever get a tiny rip in your clothing? Sew it up with a few stitches and there's no problem. Ignore it, and before you know it, the tiny rip has gone all the way up the sleeve.

That's how people work. Let the little things go, and they will keep pushing until you have things going on you never intended. It's called testing.

Grow a backbone, will you? It is just wrong that you don't teach kids how to dress or behave.

Kids know they should not be in charge and out of control. It's time you, the school administrators and teachers, figured it out.

They will be safer. And believe it or not, way happier.

I've Had It With You People.

You know who you are. Or you will soon, because I'm gonna tell you. You are not gonna be able to hide behind the usual excuses.

"I didn't know."
"We are just giving them what they want."
"We are doing what the people who elected us want us to do."
"Everybody's doing it."
"It's normal."
"We did not realize the ramifications."

I have had it with you people. You have stolen, perverted, dirtied, polluted, messed up, spit on, sullied and spoiled way too much of this world, and people have been too polite - or too gradually lulled into complacence - to stop you.

Well, I'm not polite. Not any more. Not since I've watched you mess with my kid's heads and futures, and had to help them recover. Not since now I've got a grandson, and I'm not letting it happen to him, too.

I'ma do my darndest to use my pen to show you and others the error of your ways.
I'ma call you out verbally and dare you to refute my facts.

I'm a mean old woman and I'm not scared of any of you.

I'll tackle you one by one on this blog. You better get ready.

Dear old Andy Rooney is dead. I just became Auntie Ruiny. I may ruin some of your days.

Bless your hearts!