Whatever They Call It, It's Still Greed
Wed., January 30, 12:40 PM
A headline in yesterday’s paper made me so mad; economic journalists are no better than the other dumbbells. Squeezing the rich hurts the poor. I believe I have heard these arguments before; they were called “trickle down” economics — except, from where I was sitting, it never trickled down. These are excuses instead of reasons. The coming tax rebate may not be usable, y’know. An awful lot of people will try to get the maximum out of it by buying bargain products, made in some other country. How does that help our economy?
To put it simply, this is greed. You can hear it now: “Oh, sure, it’s too bad that some people don’t have jobs; it’s really terrible that people work and still can’t make ends meet. I guess you should help them somehow, but don’t take it out of my share.”
We all know that jobs are being outsourced right out of the country. Some of us realize that many jobs that stay here are “dumbed down” so that the employers aren’t forced into paying a living wage (heaven forbid). Interviewers just go by the guidelines that were carefully written down so that no one has to think. For example, try to explain to a job counselor the difference between customer service and telemarketing. (I can do the first quite well; I refuse the second.)
I worked for fifty years; I never intended to ask for help in retirement. I did not plan to rely on my husband’s earnings, and I don’t have to. Without having a company-funded pension plan, I managed to put together what looks like an adequate amount of money for my own retirement.
Then I read about corporate retirement packages of millions of dollars. You may tell me these people were ten times better workers than I was, or even a hundred times better. But there is no way on earth that you can convince me they were a thousand times more worthy than I.
Once again, greed is dividing the haves from the have-nots. At this rate, the United States will never be the world leader it once was. But maybe we just don’t deserve it.
