Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Cold-Blooded Rich Men

"I saw something on the internet. . . the qualities you need to succeed in business are the same ones cold-blooded killers have. No empathy, no emotion . . . whatever it takes to get the result you want."
by Ian Rankin from The Impossible Dead.


In a recent column, Paul Krugman of the New York Times declared there was something wrong with the soul of the Republican Party.  Another author said, "The country was burning with right-wing fever, and it was hard to find anybody, on the right wing talk shows or in the stumps, who seemed to think that the federal government was good for anything but building more bombers and prisons and providing care and feeding for big business and right-wing politicians."

Sounds pretty much like our two most recent presidential elections, doesn't it?  The latter quote came from Dream of a Falling Eagle (A Mongo Mystery) by George C. Chesbro.  The copyright date is 1996. 

Well, Mr. Krugman, a lot of us, not just George C. Chesbro, have known for many years that something is wrong with the souls of right-winged conservatives.  I can recall as long ago as the year 2000, telling some of my friends at work that we had a new caste system in the United States.  Everyone, of course, became aware of the severity of things with the financial crisis.  The Media write about it . . .  speak about it . . . and evaluate it to death.  Yet, nobody does anything much to fix it.  I hope your article does the trick.

I've no problem with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet becoming multibillionaires.  I even admire them for doing so.  I also suspect they are not among the individuals who seriously harmed others to rise to the top.

But there is an element of upwardly mobile individuals who, like the cold-blooded serial killer of the first quote, simply have lost -- or never had -- the ability to understand and show consideration for others.  Many of these will step on the heads and hearts of anybody to get ahead.  Chief among the victims are the people who work for them at inadequate salaries and for little consideration.  I've ranted for over a year now in hopes of getting this changed.

Ignoring the worker bees may fill the company coffers pretty fast at first, but over the long haul, it undercuts the entire economy of the country.  Around 2007-2008, in particular, it upset the balance for most of the world.

At the risk of being redundant (a tool which may actually underscore an idea), I want to point to Henry Ford.  He has been quoted as saying that he wanted to build his automobiles and see that his own employees could afford to buy them.  This implies he believed in paying them an adequate wage for doing so.

So what happened along the way?  The lobbyists working for big business, for one thing.  The politicians who will need jobs if ousted out of politics.  The misconception that cutting jobs and outsourcing will improve an economy.  The lack of foresight to see that countries at work improve the situation, so it is unwise to cut government jobs in a pseudo attempt to conserve funds.  Cutting jobs does not do much good if the problem is underscored by too few jobs already.

Believe me, there were many times as a worker bee trying to feed and clothe my children on seventy-five per cent of my earnings that I wished we would have another Boston Tea Party. 
The loss of dollars not just for taxes, but also for health insurance, Medicare and Social Security when trying to serve as Head of Household on inadequate income (and much of the time no child support), was no picnic.  But at least we could hope for some remnant of security in our old age -- from our own efforts.

Now, we have basically unthinking individuals cutting worthwhile and needed services across the board -- frugality for the sake of frugality.  Frugality to get reelected.  Frugality with no thought for the human condition and human need.  Frugality with no humanity.

You are right Mr. Krugman.  There is something wrong with the soul of the Republican Party, at least the right-wing conservative part, as well as the idiotic, unthinking Tea Party members who lack the ability to discern the difference between cutting for the sake of cutting and cutting to eliminate waste.



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