This is the last chapter of Wealth, Women, and War. It is a view of the springboard which eventually launched protest around the globe. It was written from May 2007 to January 2008, and published July 2008.
If the some of events predicted herein have manifested, then is it safe to presume that the rest of the events will unfold?
That is one question which has yet to be answered.
Cliff Potts
December 3, 2014
If the some of events predicted herein have manifested, then is it safe to presume that the rest of the events will unfold?
That is one question which has yet to be answered.
Wealth, Women, and War is released in accordance with the solidarity principals of Occupy Wall Street adopted on February 9, 2012.Peace,
Cliff Potts
December 3, 2014
Of Myths and Men
One of the greatest myths of our era is that anyone can
develop a sellable skill, and go into business for themselves. The problem is
there are just so many services which can be consumed in a society an still
maintain a viable standard of living for the citizens.
Writing is not the key to success. One published
author, who has over 20 titles in print, still has to work as a teacher in
order bring in a reasonable living wage. In the U.S. today, a good run for a title
is 1,000 sales. At a royalty of $2.00 to $5.00 per book, it amounts to nice
folding money, but doesn’t even cover the purchase of an automobile or a year’s
payment on a house. Specialty books, and technical books, may not even reach
those industry standards for a “good run.” Pride of accomplishment is one thing,
but a person still has to eat and pay overhead. The cry to expect less is a
mockery in such a recession prone industry. Books are a luxury and they are the
first to go to the wayside in a tight economy. Moreover since the 1950s, with
the advent of TV, and the rise of computer technology in the 1980s, book
reading is going down. Tom Wayne, of Kansas
City , an owner of a book store, became so distraught
over “society's diminishing support for the printed word” that he began burning
his stockpile of some 20,000 unsold used books. He told the spectators that his
protest was “… the funeral pyre for thought in America today.”[1]
According to Jack Snyder of the New Millennium News Archive, “The only people that read books are
widows, school boys, librarians, liberals, teachers, and Oprah. No one wants to be
caught with a book looking like Oprah. If you do not have the truth in your gut
the only book you will ever need is the Bible.”[2]
Conversely, and within the framework of library
support of publishing, Anick Jesdanum of the associated press writes, “Twenty-one
percent of Americans … aged 18-30 have turned to public libraries, compared
with about 12 percent among the general adult population with those problems to
solve.”[3]
They are looking for answers to “questions related to health conditions, job
training, government benefits and other problems.”[4]
This is one very small market, and as a government
supported agency with a limited budget, libraries are not known to be vast
consumers of everything that comes along in print. What few books exist in the Cleburne public library in
Johnson County Texas has very few books on alternative religious expressions.
What they have is donated, and scattered. They, like most public agencies, are
sensitive to the community’s idea of what is acceptable and norm. Along the
same lines, Fort Worth ’s
public library will not shelve a book unless it has gone through their own
official channels. They are big enough to shrug off donated titles.
This of course reflects a rise in anti-intellectualism
in the United States .
"You can party a lot, ski a lot, and still do well and not be that
intellectual," says Michael Newton, a junior majoring in government at Dartmouth College Dartmouth , it's not that cool to be
intellectual. It's much cooler to be outdoorsy. At Yale, my friends say it's
cooler to be urban trendy."[5]
“Murray Sperber, a professor at Indiana
University, says a ‘beer-and-circus culture’ has permeated much of public
higher education, often substituting for solid intellectual growth among
undergraduates. He traces this phenomenon, in part, to an attitude prevalent in
society that college is merely a means to a well-paid job.
‘It's always anti-intellectual when the most
important thing in life is making money,’ Dr. Sperber says.” [6]
Again and again the theme arises, success is not
based on what you know, the quality of your work, it is based on who you know
and the quality of your social life. That may work well in a social schema, but
is dismal for productive and inventive societies. At a time when we are at the
cusp of an era of diminished resources and scarcity, our party propensity is
not serving the individual or the community well. We end up with millions of
sales people in service sectors, and a few thousand inventors, thinkers, and
engineers. That does not bode well for the future. Even in Jesdanum’s article
on young adults using library facilities, the quest is not for broader knowledge it is a
search for matter-of-fact answers:
Education-related tasks — making decisions
about schooling, paying for it and getting job training — are the most common
problems drawing people to libraries, according to a joint study from the Pew
Internet and American Life Project and the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.[7]
If the information is not considered commercially
viable it languishes, yet the keys to the future may lie in the new, the novel,
and the unique. Philosophies which alter perspective may give the best insight
to solutions for future prosperity. However, in a commercial society of “booze
and broads” political idealism of what a market economy is the primary view of
how to solve complex problems. One might say this is sad, but in reality it is
just plain stupid.
All of this points to a less than viable income
potential for those who take up the pen, pencil, or keyboard in an attempt to
make a living with information and ideas. Mind you, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol because he had a debt
to pay. Anyway you look at it writing is not a key to successful alternative
income, no matter how much one knows or can research. The reward, however, is
in the satisfaction of doing writing the work, and being accepted by some
agency as havening a viable voice in the marketplace.
A person can become a nurse. They are in high demand
right now. However, how can one be a nurse unless one is employed at some
corporate hospital? Right now nurses make roughly $25.00 an hour starting. That
$25.00 an hour still does not buy what it bought ten years ago. Gasoline alone
has almost tripled from the 1999 low of $0.78 USD a gallon outside Azle , Texas
As more and more people make the transition into the
field, the economic pressure due to an increase in supply of care givers, will
eventually decrease the levels of income. If a nurse creates their own nursing
service, then the nurse is no longer a nurse, but a nursing administrator. This
is a very different, and some would say more attractive, position than the
hands-on caregiver which is the core of nursing. Nursing is a field which is
known to burn people out.
It is worth noting that “burnout” is defined as “A debilitating psychological condition
brought about by unrelieved work stress ….” Another definition of burnout is:
“… the loss of meaning in one's work.”[8]
If a person goes into the field for money, it is highly likely that the
income will lose its luster and the individual will burn out. Work, as noted by
Henry Ford is the source of happiness, it is not about money; money may come later:
There
is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have
accomplished something.[9]
In the 1990s
all attention was focused on computer technology. Thousands of jobs in the
computer industry vanished in the early years of the 2000s decade. As the dust
settled, re-employment in the field required more and more costly vendor
certifications, if not more advanced degrees, at reduced wages which had not
been adjusted for inflation, with little to no benefits. The greater supply of
talented people in the field, the less the corporations had to pay for that
talent.
The reason
for this was the flood of people who entered the field as the technical skills
were pushed downward to the non-technical population. It was simply a function
of supply and demand. There is nothing wrong with this situation per se, but
the numbers within the industry reduced the competitive advantage of the early
technologies that brought business from the mechanical age to the digital age.
Moreover, as technology became easier to use, more documented, and less
intuitive, it increased the number of service outlets for technical services
until the return of investment became so negligible that most have vanished.
While the
one-man-shop still exists, the commercial viability is diminishing as the
nation moves forward. It is not a matter of changing technology; it is a
function of the numbers within the industry engaged in that particular service.
The economy may support a few hundred thousand skilled technicians, but cannot
support tens of millions of skilled independent technicians.[10] Jobs
in IT, even with the various MCP certifications, are still temporary technical
positions. One observer who is currently successfully surviving in the
Information Technology field sums up the situation this way:
“I think power elites pay only lip service
to symbolic knowledge workers, if it was not the case we would put more money
into science education and none military R&D. Nerds and geeks would be
treated like rock stars even in the White House. It is my understanding that
since the Bush Administration none-military science budgets have been cut as
has aid to higher education The Stanford SLAC program has produced 3 Nobel
Prize winners, but it's federal budget has been cut this year with job firings
(the men and women there hold MS and PhDs). It looks like the only way we are
getting to Mars will be with a long walk or on the private dime ... junk
science not only rules, but the Christian Right and Exxon writes the rules for
those of real science in stem cell research, climate change, drug/medical
research, and energy research.” [11]
According to
the San Jose Mercury News, this observation is verifiable:
The
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, one of the nation's premier physics
research laboratories, is planning to stop work on two key projects and lay off
more than 125 people because of a surprise reduction in federal spending on the
physical sciences.
SLAC
had expected about $120 million in high-energy physics funds; instead it got
about $95 million. Every program dealing with research in particles and
particle astrophysics faces significant reductions.[12]
We can say,
in a fit of libertarian idealistic zeal, that such research is best left to the
private sector. However, the private sector is not making the investment
because they are obsessed with growing China ’s economy, and recovering
from the sub-prime imprudence. The private sector is not looking to the long
term future.
This may
indeed be the fate of today’s bright and willing nursing students unless there
is a change in the corporate mentality which now overwhelms the medical
industry. Within the near future (2008-2018), however, today’s nurses should be
safe from the corporation’s misguided application of market dynamics.
Professionals
in the security industry can go no further in the business without having to be
attached in some way to a corporate entity. It is not a trade which lends
itself to any real professional opportunity. In 2003 a non-supervisory,
commissioned security officer earned roughly $11.00 an hour. In 2007 the wage
diminished approximately 20%. There are security officers making more,
but those officers usually work under federal contracts. The average private
contract pays much less. The federal contracting jobs are few and far between.
In a small, privately held security firm employing 150 officers maybe 5% of
those officers are employed through the federal contracts, the rest work the
private sector. Average pay at that level is $9.00 an hour. Supervisory pay is
at the $10.00 and hour range. It is low because it is often pure overhead and un-billable.
The security industry’s business model is that of a temp company. Pay is based
on what the client is willing to pay. There are, for the most part, no merit
raises, no COLA increases, and no benefits. The norm in the industry is such
that education and proven skill is not considered compensable. An officer who
is a supervisor in one firm often has to start at the bottom of the next firm,
and “work his way up.” The problem with “working your way up” is that the
advancements are highly subjective based on the social criteria of the
supervisory staff and the client representative. That is within the scope of
the current social contract in the United States
today, but it doesn’t necessarily support professionalism with the security industry.
Outside the government agencies and the military, security is still not a
profession. It is just another dead-end job. It is still, even during this
current era of higher risk, a job best suited for college students and retirees
augmenting a retirement fund.
As it has been asked before, how many Burger King employees
are going to be willing or able, to eat at McDonald’s? As more and more jobs
vanish and working age people make less and less money in the globalized
economy while staples are allowed to float freely in a market economy, how will
these service firms find and keep viable customer bases to support them? So far
the service economy is keeping the nation afloat, but how long can that last?
These questions, and observations are not being
addressed in any comprehensible way. There are individuals who have, thus far,
managed to navigate around the pit falls within this economic picture. They are
the exceptions not the rule. Not everyone is a Michael Jordan, Warren Buffet,
Oprah Winfrey, or a Bill Gates. Most people are just average people. They are
capable. They are good enough. They
are skilled. And, they are losing ground in this U.S. economy. Since that is the
case, we are entering an era of dynamic social change.
While this report attempts to shed light on the
triggers for the change, it is difficult to make any solid predictions as to
the specifics of that change. We can pretty much conclude that the Bush style
of conservatism is dead. If it has not been completely discredited as a failed
social experiment, it should be pushed aside soon.
Even if we accept the argument that Clinton is responsible for the DotCom bubble
blow out and the decline in the tech based businesses, the GOP laissez faire approach to the domestic condition has done
nothing to recover jobs. One can't say that the government should have done
anything more than making a few calls to big business to say, "Guys, you
are making me look bad; hire these schmoes, will ya?" That is all it
really takes: A nudge from the top.
There has been some discussion that leaders like
Lincoln and FDR are no longer needed by the people in the United States . From what we have
seen going back to Ronald Reagan, such an assertion is wistful thinking at
best. Not only does the U.S.
need strong leadership with a clear vision for the future, but the nation needs
strong leadership which can correlate a massive amount of information from
seemingly unrelated sources. The world is dynamic and fluid right now, prone to
change within minutes, and the U.S.
needs leadership which can navigate in such a dynamic environment. The
leadership needs to comprehend what is going on, and thrive while building
cooperative collaborations of dissimilar parties. The latter part is akin to
herding cats.
The Black Death spread through Europe
from 1347 to 1351 and killed an estimated one third of the population.[13]
It is at best a nightmarish and morbid story of the past that is all but
forgotten. Yet, the Renaissance, and Age of Enlightenment followed this
outbreak. The labor movement also is deeply rooted in the aftermath of the
Black Death.
The RMS Titanic sank on April 14, 1912. The last
survivor, an infant at the time, has grown old and grey. If it were not for Hollywood ’s obsession with
the event, it would have faded in memory a long time ago.
The Civil War, costing some 600,000 lives, is only
remembered as a flash of independence for a region which long ago forgot why it
wanted to be independent; it still cannot come to grips with the taint of
slavery.
World War One cost the lives of 20 million men.[14] World War Two fatalities have been updated to
72 million dead world wide.[15]
They are legends of the past, being real, but without substance for most of us.
The lines between Korea
and Vietnam
are blurred in the minds of most Americans. Korea cost some 474,000 lives among
the U.N. forces, and somewhere around 1.9 million on the Korean side of the
equation.[16]
The losses in Vietnam
are arguably around the 5.1 million deaths figure.[17]
At most, these wars in Asia represent the
games played on sunny summer afternoons by GenX-ers. They represent no more of
a hardship than being called in at the end of a rapturous day with “buds” to
sup alone in front of some now forgotten early evening sit-com.
Desert Storm is fading into the mists of time as an
unfinished glorious victory of the U.S.
over the mighty tyrannical forces of a Middle East
madman. Some 776 coalition troops perished, and a conservative estimate of
Iraqi deaths is placed at 35,000.[18]
Depending on who you talk to, the death toll from the
current operation in Iraq puts Iraqi deaths at a high of 151,000 and a low of
somewhere around 35,000. The U.S.
Collation of the Willing has lost some 3,921 U.S. troops and some 3,431 deaths
among the collation members. The private contractors, often dismissed in these
discussions, have lost a total of 933 private civilians who went to Iraq
to help rebuild the nation.[19]
As it is an on going, disputed and highly politicized operation the number is
massaged to fit the political need of the day. Within this mix, scant attention
is paid to the commercial and economic ventures which we now dub globalization.
It is as if most people think that wars exist in a
vacuum. That is the unfortunate result of the way history is taught in the high
school level. There is a fixation on days and dates of battles, and
battlefields, and scant attention paid to the causes of the conflicts. It is as
if the educational system in general is skirting causality due to an attempt to
be so bland and generalist that they will not offend the voting parents. Or it
could be that it is a perception that the student body can hold no more than
just the minimal facts concerning war. Truth is, the battles are the least of
the issues in war. The core is what led up to the war, and why, and sometimes
that why needs to be debated with passion. It is as if war exists outside the
context of the underlying economic or rational commercial goal. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
Within the finite life-span memory of the
contemporary adult in the United
States , however, war is seen as a strange,
irrational occurrence happening somewhere else to someone else. Yet, even in
the U.S.
we are dealing with a lack of resources, and diminished opportunity within an
increasingly dead end service economy. Even the term McJob,[20]
did not occur as some sort of anomaly.[21]
It isn’t now.
Typical of the hard nosed, multi-gifted, nomads of
today’s B-school management class, people flitter from job to job like summer
moths bouncing between porch lights on a sweltering July night in North Texas . Experience and job satisfaction take a back
seat to the acquisition of resources needed to fend off the coming winter cold.
The moth still flitters from one shiny spot another, finding neither expertise
nor satisfaction. The lesson of the ant is lost on the moth of late summer.
Compartmental intellectual segregation, the difference between want, feel, and
need, becomes all too apparent when the deeds done under the sun do not match
the words spoken to the audience who will bother to listen. The smooth talker
of the day will tell the audience that the department will not be outsourced,
and six moths later the department members, one by one, are escorted out of the
building by security, called at night and told they are no longer needed, or, as
in the case of Radio-Shack, e-mailed and told their jobs were gone.[22]
Those who do listen pay more attention to the words and ideas than they do the
deeds done in broad daylight; they want to believe they are not being lied to.
Maslow, Merton, et al are not wrong. Science still predicts the actions of
people even if the words of the political favorites deny the scientific data.
The essence of the rules of life, the social contract
in the current era is extensively that there is no community, save for the community
you, as an individual, build around yourself. It begins with finding a mate
with whom you share common goals for the future. From that point you build a
family. It can be called a basic social economic unit, but the more common term
is useful, too. The next venture is finding people who are of like mind sharing
similar cultural goals and shared commitment. That action then leads to the
creation of a functional economic unit (call it a company or professional
organization) which can sustain the well-being of the group through hard times.
It also shares, according to the contribution of the individual, in the
prosperity during good times. Charity can be extended to the dysfunctional.
Social ability should not be the only criteria for the inclusion into the
community. Skill, talent, vision, honesty, and native ability do matter. Track
record of accomplishments does matter. Productivity still matters. This is the
lesson of the ant.
Novelty in
business, bright ideas which have yet to be proved, only matter in as much as
they are legal, honest, and hold the key to future success based on past
successes. The person’s ability to do the job is more important than their
ability to be fun at a party. Talent comes in many shapes and sizes and is not
based on one’s nation of origin. That is to say that the Indo-Asian, or the
Chinese, have no corner on ability to get the job done, and the U.S.
worker is often better than anticipated, if they are managed properly. This
goes back to Ford’s "welfare capitalism." Develop the people who want
to work.
Deception in this arena has only led to the loss of
viable employment in the U.S.
and a loss of real productivity. Such service providers may have glorified
technical skills, but lack shared vision for the welfare of the local
community. More to the point, citizens of far flung nations who willing sell
their services on a global basis are far more interested in the welfare of
their own community. This will become far more apparent as resources become
more and more limited. It is rather obvious that home is home and India and China
are more interested in India
and China than they are the United
States of AmericaU.S. culture has a
core belief of individualism, cast, class, and nationalism play far more
importance to our far flung business partners than is at play in the United States .
Moreover, they use our philosophy of individualism against our interest as they
bleed the U.S.
of resources. While the U.S.
still consumes the bulk of the world’s energy resources, both China and India
have eclipsed the U.S.
in the consumption of other commodities.[23]
If the U.S. continues on this rather naive
path of presuming that the world is playing by our rules then we will be ill
used by our trading partners. Having faith in God, however one perceives Him or
Her, is one thing, having faith in a human agency or institution which is
looking out for their interest is foolhardy at best.
The feudal lords of our age, high in the glass towers
of the Corporate Wonders, have yet to realize that they are playing a dangerous
game with a population which is being stressed to the breaking point.
One more major recession will tell all.
[2]
Snyder, J. (2007, May 28). Book Burning [Editorial]. New Millennium News
Archive. Retrieved January 10, 2008, from New Millennium News Archive
(21507).
[3]
Jesdanum, A. (2007, December 30). Study: Young Adults heavy library users. Associated
Press
[4]
Jesdanum, A. (2007, December 30). Study: Young Adults heavy library users. Associated
Press.
[5]
Clayton, M. (2003, January 31). Deep Thinkers Missing in Action. The
Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved January 10, 2008, from
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0121/p17s02-lehl.html
[6]
Clayton, M. (2003, January 31). Deep Thinkers Missing in Action. The
Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved January 10, 2008, from
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0121/p17s02-lehl.html
[7]
Jesdanum, A. (2007, December 30). Study: Young Adults heavy library users. Associated
Press.
[8]
"Burnout." Stress Management Website. Distance Education
Projects of the Colleges and . 12 Jan. 2008
<http://www.winona.edu/stress/9Burnout.HTML>.
[9]
Ford, Henry. "Henry Ford Quotes." Brainy Quotes. 12 Jan. 2008
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henryford122323.html>.
[10]
"Number of Microsoft Certified Professionals Worldwide." Microsoft
Learning. 12 Nov. 2007. Microsoft. 12 Jan. 2008 <http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx>.
[11]
Snyder, Jack. "Conservatives Losing." New Millennium News Archive.
12 Jan. 2008. Yahoo Groups. New Millennium News Archive. Yahoo. 12 Jan.
2008 <http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/NMNewsArchive/message/25952>.
[12]
Krieger, Lisa M. "Stanford physics lab to lay off 125 people." San Jose
[13]
"Black Death." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 14 Jan 2008,
12:55 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_Death&oldid=184244336>.
[14]
"World War I casualties." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 14
Jan 2008, 18:48 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_War_I_casualties&oldid=184303279>.
[15]
"World War II casualties." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
15 Jan 2008, 15:13 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_War_II_casualties&oldid=184498857>.
[16]
"Korean War." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 11 Jan 2008,
19:37 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Korean_War&oldid=183689747>.
[17]
"Vietnam War casualties." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 13
Jan 2008, 11:48 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vietnam_War_casualties&oldid=184025235>.
[18]
"Gulf War." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Jan 2008,
20:49 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gulf_War&oldid=184561250>.
[19]
"Casualties of the Iraq
War." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 15 Jan 2008, 05:59 UTC.
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 15 Jan 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War&oldid=184431556>.
[20]
McJob: A low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low benefit, no-future job in the
service sector.
Douglas Coupland 1961- : Generation X
(1991) ("McJob." Oxford
[21]
"In Search of Excellence." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
23 Oct 2007, 17:58 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 20 Jan 2008
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=In_Search_of_Excellence&oldid=166560212>.
[22]
Gonsalves, Antone . "RadioShack Lays Off 400 Employees Via E-Mail." Tech
Web Network 31 Aug. 2006. 20 Jan. 2008
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/192500912>.
[23]
Brown, Lester R. Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a
Civilization in Trouble. New York :
W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.
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