IT'S GETTING TOUGHER AND TOUGHER OUT THERE!

IT'S GETTING TOUGHER AND TOUGHER OUT THERE! (Frazer Chronicles)

Man, it's tough in the workplace today, I'm glad I retired a couple years ago, and hope that I don't have to rejoin the workforce again in my lifetime. I tried a whole bunch of different jobs in my attempts to eek out some sort of existence during the 40 some years when I was working.

Today there are many, many writers, journalists, interested writers and bloggers that write about how the job market is for the average worker in the United States. Sadly many of these writers have less then no clue about what it means to be a low paid employee in the work a day world. The daily degradation, the humiliation and the constant fear of reprisal from supervisors, or worse, of losing the job.

Very seldom does an actual laborer speak up "in print by his/her own hand" about personal experiences, about the anger, about the fear and about the humiliation that one feels in a dead-end job. The feelings that one can experiences go beyond humiliation, into a sort of constant state of sadness and self petty, sadness for your way of life, and petty for the overbearing supervisor or company that you are working for.

For most, there is a feeling of unfulfilled potential, a frustrating feeling of failure, a feeling of being taken advantage of and a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness. For many workers in America today, some or all of these feelings accurately describe their working career. It is not a phenomena of today's working society, rather a cycle of low wages that was triggered by the 2008 financial problems that gripped the United States when the housing bubble burst. 

The cycle that I am talking about has happened in the past, in the United States as well as the world at large, but I don't really care about the world at large, that is part of Americas problems today. I link Americas problems, first to NAFTA, and then to the global economy that we are "enjoying" today. The Wal Mart "T" shirts for $3.99 that were made in China for $2 including shipping.

NAFTA took effect in 1994 amidst claims that the North American Free Trade Agreement would improve the U.S. trade balance with Mexico and Canada, which would result in more then 200,000 new jobs in the United States. The reality was that there weren't nearly the 200,000 jobs, and that  NAFTA has created a trade deficit which in fact displaced more then 1 million jobs in America.

What exports do for the American worker is really simple, it creates more jobs, decent paying jobs, jobs with benefits. The trade deficit between the 3 country's has varied from 1 to 2 billion dollars while some states have suffered more then 100,000 jobs lost.

To say that NAFTA has been a failure, "at least for American workers," is an understatement, and what the act has meant for industry is easy to see, "more profit," and a ever widening disparage in income for the upper percentages of Americans compared to the middle class.

A global economy has preformed even worse for Americans work force, basically eliminating any sort of competition for manufactured goods and worker wages. A factory worker in China cannot be compared to an American worker for several reasons, overtime, benefits, working conditions and worker related programs.

Globalization has been around for a long time, years ago, governmental leaders began to talk about eliminating worker rights groups and organizations. Private sector business has always looked for ways to increase productivity while downsizing it's work force either through attrition or innovative systems that can replace workers.

It has never been the responsibility of business to create more jobs, rather it has been their job to create more production, through whatever means necessary. Actually it is not the place for government to create jobs, rather to produce entitlement programs that  either the electorate wants, or that elected officials deem necessary. The affordability of these entitlements are also the responsibility of elected officials, through tax revenues.

Why is it tougher out there in the work place, business has discovered that outsourcing either portions of their manufacturing, or all of it, makes their product more affordable for American  consumers, meaning that these same corporations do not have to charge as much, therefore do not have to pay a high wage to their workers here in America.

Innovation has been an American trademark, it was a reason why America was head and shoulders above the rest of the world. This innovative mentality came from all corners of America, and from people that could have been commoners, or highly educated engineers or scientists. But that innovative spirit and thinking is being retarded and in fact being outsourced along with millions of jobs.

Americans are working longer, harder and for stagnant wages today, a trend that started not in 2007 or 2010, rather in the 1980's. Business began to discover that they could make money more and more on the backs of their workers without reimbursing them. Whoever said that cleaning a motel room or washing dishes in a restaurant was not worth a living wage? Whoever said that waiting tables wasn't worth $12 an hour.

Cleaning a motel room is an important service, waitress's tables is an important job, jobs that not everybody can do, yet they are at the bottom of the totum pole with regards to wages. These jobs aren't worth what a doctor makes, but they sure as hell are worth more then minimum wages.

I used to drive commercially, I liked my job and always did the best job that I could. I have loaded my trailer, unloaded my trailer and driven well over the legal number of hours, "11 hours in a 24 hour period," to get to a stop on time. I didn't make any more money, a time sensitive load was just a part of my job.

Do you know what I got for my effort, zip, zero, nada, unless you count not getting paid for miles that I drove, or stops that I was supposed to get paid for but didn't. Why, because the truck company I was working for wanted that extra buck and because they knew that I had little recourse. I have also driven for truck companies with sub-standard, unsafe, dangerous and illeagl equipment, why, because I needed a paycheck. Many times I have driven around the country in unsafe and under maintained trucks and trailers, weighing more then 35 ton for a paycheck.

Governmental regulations do not work, they do not cover all the dangerous eliments that happen every day in America, and now the American working men and women are being asked, no demanded to go above and beyond.

With little exception, the people that write about the ills of America worker plights need to simply stop, write about movie reviews, or a garden party. Cycles continue, the wheel keeps going around and the American worker is facing tougher and tougher times out there, and I have never been happier in my retirement.