Where does it end?

Where does it end?

For that matter, where the hell does it begin?  Ford announced that it plans to cut up to 2000 salaried jobs.  These are the non-production people, those that have support functions for the production line.  So, now because the Ford executives completely mismanaged the company for so many years...all the while giving the shareholders B.S. profits the little person who still needs to feed their family has to pay the price. 
I don't understand how this comes about.  What happened?  Did the executives wake up one day and find out that their financial scheming wasn't the cornucopia for them that they thought it would be?  So now the company is no longer profitable, and they don't expect it to return to profitability in 2009 and they projected (gee, what a surprise! They now have to admit their incompetence!).  So, who pays the price?  The little person.  Do you think that ANY of these 2000 salaried employees will get anything close to the financial gain that the executives get if they were "let go"?  Hell no!!  These executives will rape and pillage until they are put 6 feet under.  These executives have mismanaged the company to the point that I would be surprised if they ever able to bring it back to any kind of profitability.  Hey, look at their great long-term thinking...they pushed SUV's because they KNEW that there was no end to cheap gasoline.  Yeah, right!  The ONLY silver lining here is that you have one set of corporate executives, for the sake of their own obscene profits...they put the screws to another set of corporate executives.  And these auto executives didn't see any further then the end of their noses.  I guess then oil executives forgot to tell the auto executives of their plans to rip off the consumer so that the auto executives could put some aside for just this kind of situation.  HA! 
What makes me sad is to think of all of those people that are going to get laid off, scrambling in a messed up economy (Thank you, Mr. Moron Bush!) and no one is going to care if they or their families live or die...unless they are a large political contributor (which then would mean they wouldn't be in the position they are).  These corporate executives should be taken to task for what they've done...but they won't because the only ones who have the power to do so are the same ones that are exactly like them.  If they work to expose these auto executives, then they expose themselves, too.

The Problems With Dreams

I hope everyone had a wonderful and happy Memorial Day weekend.  I had an opportunity to just sit and take stock of my life.  I had an opportunity to look back to try to figure out whatever happened to my dreams.  Those aspirations that we've all had.  Many of those we came to realize were just child's dreams and were discarded, never to be thought of again.  Others are ones that linger, that stay in our minds, dreams that we still long for but are quickly coming to the realization that, for whatever reason, we will never be able to attain.  Unfortunately, that is my life...dreams never attained, never will be.  Why?  Because all of my dreams have always been usurped by others.  Everyone in my life has embraced my dreams, have lauded them as to their greatness, etc.  But what has come of those dreams of mine?  They've been taken over by others. 
Who are these others?  How about an ex-spouse who took my dream and instead of supporting it and making every effort to help me work on my dream, decided to show me how much better they were with my dream then I was.  The results?  Totally screwed and the dream trashed.
How about partners in another venture that decided that "wishful thinking" replaced actually doing something to promote ones dream.  Unfortunately, my version of the dream didn't match with theirs.  I wanted to build an actual business...they wanted to have a "social club" and people to boss around.  The results of this dream?  The other partners didn't feel there was enough revenue being generated, so they voted to dissolve the partnership.  Another dream in the trash.
What about the latest one?  It's the same theme...I want to own and run my own business.  But now I have a spouse who has wrapped themselves with my dream, told me to keep working and investing in the business, and THEY'LL build the business (with MY money) so that at some point in my life I can quit my job and jump right into the "thriving" business.  It hasn't worked out that way.  After waiting almost 10 years, all my spouse has been able to do is spend my money, have nothing to show for it, sits around the house, eats snacks, and complains how bad the business market is.  I get an attitude when I ask how they know when the market will become better if they aren't working the business?  My spouse gets in my face and tells me not to tell them how to run a business...they know what they are doing.  I'm not a genius, but I haven't figured out yet how sitting around the house, watching TV, and eating snacks promotes any business.  Well,  they could be putting out ads on the Internet.  I've never seen any and the only ones that I am aware of are those that I have put out on the Net.  All of the customers that we have had have been driven by my ads.  And with those customers, my spouse has "rules" of which customers they will deal with and which ones they won't.  Are you a customer who will buy RIGHT NOW?  Are you going to spend a lot of money?  If yes, then my spouse will deal with you.  Otherwise, they won't spend any time with you. 
I am watching another dream ready to go down in flames and I am powerless to change that fact.  I am stuck in a dead end job, working with dead end people, trying to survive in a dead end life.
I look back at my dreams and try to figure how I failed in them, what lessons are to be learned from those failures.  I come to the conclusion that I can't put my finger on my failures, not because I am that perfect, but because I have never been given the opportunity to actually try to make my dreams work.  It's always someone else taking over those dreams, telling me that THEY are the "experts" and for me to keep working my job so that they are free to work my dream and are not inconvenienced in any way.
But can I change things?  Not at this time.  Oh, I can if I choose to completely demolish my life (which probably isn't a bad idea).  I just feel too old and tired to start from scratch...again.  And for it to work I have to NOT allow anyone else into my life.  Otherwise, it won't work...because they'll take over my dreams for their own purposes.
 

Business As Usual

Business As Usual

The news this morning stated that many of the UAW workers found faults with the tentative agreement reached with American Axle.  But they predicted they predicted that it would be accepted, albeit by a very small margin.  The UAW outgoing president wasn't that optimistic or upbeat about the tentative agreement, which will be voted on this week.  But he said that it was the best that the collective bargaining unit could do for its rank & file under the circumstances.  What are those circumstances?  Well, the economy.  American Axle is using the economy to shaft its employees.  They're threatening to move work off-shore.  But the company needs to make a profit to remain in business, you say.  Absolutely!  But it has nothing to do with the company's ability to make a profit.
One of the UAW members was quoted to say the following about the pay reduction the workers will be forced to take -

"I'm voting no. It's totally unacceptable," said Gary Reed, 52, of Warren, who criticized American Axle Chairman and CEO Richard Dauch for making millions while asking production workers to take a pay cut from $28 per hour to $18.50.

"It's a slap in our face," Reed said. "We've been watching this guy making millions and millions of dollars even while we've been on strike, and were going to accept a stab in the back and just walk away with a smile on our face?"

Why doesn't the actions by Richard Dauch surprise me?  Dauch doesn't care.  There isn't anything to make him care.  He has no compassion for anyone other then himself.  He probably doesn't care how profitable the company is, other then how it affects his compensation.  But I'm willing to bet that Dauch will be the first one to criticize the workers when they focus in on their compensation.  He'll turn around and tell everyone how uncaring and mercenary the employees are because they are not focusing on the company and what is in its best interest (translation: what is in HIS best interest).  Dauch won't care what happens to American Axle, he probably has some legal clause that will allow him to rip off the rest of the shareholders if the company goes under.  Hasn't this been the case with all of the companies in the US when they've collapsed?  The company becomes defunct...shutdown...but the executives pull out all of these fabulous clauses out of their asses that allows them to reap millions, while others (who has absolutely nothing to do with the ruination of the company) are ruined financially.

What will happen to the employees of American Axle?  They will more then likely approve the agreement.  What choice do they have?  Loose their jobs?  Stop feeding their families?  Dauch won't have that problem...regardless of the outcome.  

What can be done?  I guess to answer that question you need to ask an additional one...by who?  Who is going to do anything?  Not any government entity.  They've been paid too much to not interfere.  I've never seen any politician actually champion any kind of worker cause.  I've seen and heard them give it a lot of lip-service, but actually do something, make some type of sacrifice, or actually take some meaningful action.  The courts? Pllleeeeaaassse!  The US courts have been bought and paid for decades ago.  If a poor person is caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, he can expect to spend a few years doing hard time in prison.  But on those RARE occasions where one of these corporate executives get caught and by some remote chance they get convicted of stealing millions they end up doing their minimal time (counted in months) at some country club facility that they refer to as a prison.  Naaah.  I don't see anyone doing anything other then the people themselves.

Do what, you say?  I say start out by bringing back tar & feathering.  We can always build from there.  I can now understand the logic and reasoning behind the French Revolution.

You can read the news article about the American Axle agreement here.