There is a strange similarity in two recent national news stories that on the surface don't seem similar at all.
The first story is the ongoing tragedy in a West Virginia coal mine. The second deals with how large American companies are dealing with unemployment claims. Each instance is a battle between corporate and middle America. In each case corporate America is using every means it controls against the interests of current or former employees.
The most costly battle has taken place at the Upper Big Branch South mine in Montcoal West, VA. Hit with approximately 1300 safety violations in the last six years, the Big Branch owners fought every fine and significantly fought all efforts that would have resulted in necessary safety repairs or in closing the mine. After all, big coal is big money.
The President of Massey Energy, which owns Big Branch, made $11 million in 2008.
Miners working overtime could earn up to $70,000 a year. And despite what they knew to be severe safety problems, they stayed in the mines. That was where they could make the most money for their families.
Dept. of Labor statistics show that the Big Branch mine has 11.6 times the national average of substantial violations, 3.6 times the national rate in ventilation control violations and 2.4 times the number of ventilation problems. Early speculation is that ventilation problems caused a build up of methane gas, which resulted in the mine explosion.
The CEO of Massey is Don Blankenship, a strong opponent of increased mine regulation. All of Massey's mines are non-union. Blankenship has personally donated millions to anti-regulation office seekers.
Big Branch now has 29 dead, bringing to 75 the total number of West Virginia miners killed in the last five years.
Another recent story by New York Times-award winning reporter Jason DeParle told how a little known company, the Talx Corporation, has in eight years come to "dominate a thriving industry: helping employers process and fight unemployment claims." The employers are not small businesses but largely Fortune 500 companies, like Wal-Mart, Aetna, Home Depot and other business giants.
The Talx Company was in total obscurity eight years ago. It now processes 30 percent of the nation's unemployment claims. It uses a variety of tactics such as failing to respond to legal notices and lawsuits; and it has been fined for what a Connecticut official said was "frivolous motions" and "unnecessary delay." A Massachusetts Judge dismissed a Talx lawsuit, saying: "the court will not be party to a fraud."
Talx does what Massey does. It takes advantage of the legal process system to delay actions that the companies should take but that would cost them profits. Do these two stories, Talx and Massey Energy, lead to any natural conclusions? By themselves they may not. They may be considered aberrations of relationships between corporate and middle America.
But they are not unique.
Health insurance reform was prompted in large part by an insurance industry that obviously put the enrichment of executives above service to the insured. And of course, middle America has yet to recover from the nation's economic crisis. Sixteen million Americans are jobless. Millions have lost their homes. But the bank executives whose wild speculations caused the crisis are having record profits and receiving bonuses in the millions.
Is it too much to say that corporate America is engaged in an undeclared class war with middle America? I believe not. The search for massive wealth for the few continues to be done at the expense of the well-being -- and safety -- of the many. It must be a national priority to reverse this trend before American ideals of equal opportunity are destroyed.
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http://www.historycentral.com/Documents/Clinton/SigningNaFTA.html
A young man once asked his father on the eve of an election:
What is a democrate?
A closet republican.
Well, then what is a republican?
A closet democrate.
Who am I?
Smarter for knowing
A man once asked Jesus, "how does a rich man enter the kingdom of God." Jesus answered that, " it is as hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle". Of course it is. The rich man has no intention of leaving, he is already there.
The mind of Christ: ask a stupid question you get a stupid answer. Why? Distract them. It's all just a game. So, what's a democrate?
I found my own definition: seize the day! When opportunity knocks open the door. And then I heard an amazing definition on the news while treadmilling..............
Money is like water, it will follow the path of least resistence. BINGO That is a truth if there ever was one.
The poor people in Africa can't fight/resist free trade and it is devastaing their economies, increasing the poor when they can ill afford more poor.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100215174136.htm
It is the public that must resist, and if they don't, they lose. The corporations have proven that they can't and wont resist.
Free trade is devasting the economies over the world. All those people who protested free trade years ago, are sitting back and saying.........I told you so.
Ross Perot, who ran as an independent for President many years ago called it The Giant Sucking Sound. But the democrates and the republicans refused to see the light. Both parties were on board that train........wreck.
Unfortunately, it is not too much to say. The genius of our system of government has always been the balance of power and accountability. As the courts have swung to the right we have been losing both of these.
If you dare to complain, you are labeled a racist, in regards to the illegal immigrant situation, and greedy, selfish, immoral Americans by those countries.
Idiots like Sarah Palin only whip the public into a frenzy because they are ignorant. As to Obama, he offers no solutions, because the real powers that be won’t allow him. It will be the same with the next incoming President, no matter from which party.
A report put out by the WTO (World Trade Organization) showed that outsourcing jobs to poorer countries didn’t lift the poverty of those countries. The citizens didn’t benefit by any significance. The corporations and country powers that be did.
I am an optimist. I think that things will change when the middle class suffers the same losses that those of the lower class has suffered through the years. They will finally get off their high horse of snotty intellectualism, and smarten up. When they weren’t looking, they were snowed. No job, no house, no food, no clothing, no toys. That is when the ruckus will come.
A servant class will always exist, and maybe necessarily so. If the truth be told we are not all genius. I amy be wrong, and at sometime change my beliefs, but I have always thought that rich men are necessary. Iow's I don't have a problem with the rich, I have a problem with getting rich off the sweat of another man back or brow, without just compensation to that man. I tend to try and see things from each side. That is equality to me. Some might not agree, even strongly disagree, but until someone can figure it out better than that......................there's my story.
Here is one article that is similar:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100215174136.htm
The war is over. Many of the tactics perfected to isolate and subjugate the aforementioned groups are now mature.
Don't you know, talking 'bout a revolution sounds like a whisper
And finally the tables are starting to turn
Poor people gonna rise up and get their share
Poor people gonna rise up and take what's theirs
Don't you know you better run, run, run, run
-Tracy Chapman
the middle class.
Who don't want to pay for their lazy sases (sarcasm) and don't want them in their neighborhoods.
This is why they brainwash people against the very word "marxism" even if some of the concepts marx identified are actual facts. those facts must be painted over and people must be brainwashed to think it is their duty to toil in poverty while the great rich masters are "talent" and must be "retained" at ALL COSTS (to the taxpayer). IT is presented to the ex-middle class that it is their duty to put up with austerity measures whenever the rich people (IMF) say so, while the rich must constantly loot. When there is a big middle class, they loot in a different way, and are all pouty. When there are tons of peons, it gets a little easier for them to loot. Passive people are the enemy. In fact, passive people invite terrorists to take over.
Sadly, I think we have already passed the point of no return. Even though the pain that Main Street feels is universal, we are so polarized by ideology (definitely by design...do not fool yourself for a moment that we arrive at this point without the very careful planning of those TRULY in power) that we are unable to come together as a united front to take our country back from the plutocrats. The middle class will continue to shrink and we will become enslaved to the corporations. Eventually, those at the lower end of the plutocracy will begin to be devoured by those stronger until the world is ruled by a handful of the elite. The first to go, right after the free-market investors, will be the Don Blankenships and Talx Corporations of the world, the delusional individuals and entities too arrogant to recognize the fact that they are expendable. The only upside I see to this is watching these heartless goons come to realize that they have been pawns in a power play, not members of the club. I hope I'll be able to afford popcorn to snack on while I watch.
I'd love to see us go all French Revolution on the power-mongers but, as a group, we're too cumbersome and far too divided. Heaven help us.
That is part of my frustration with Obama. I voted for him because I believed that he would halt and reverse our slide toward corporatism, without burning the whole thing down to do it (which would be a disaster for EVERYONE!) But it seems that all he is really interested in doing is "stabilizing" it. Maybe that's necessary before "change we can believe in takes place", but my guess is that the Obama administration isn't terribly uncomfortable with the trend. Sad.