A few nights ago we had dinner with Ryan's parents and got onto the subject of Occupy Wallstreet and corporate greed. We all agreed that for the most part this protest is turning into more of a waste of energy than a positive move in the direction of change. It seems as though people are now congregating to complain about how unfair their lives are rather than voicing concerns that spark discussion and possibly change.
Ryan's mom shared a disturbing incident that recently happened at her workplace, a national communications corporation which I won't name even though I'd love to (let's just say it starts with an F now and formerly started with a V). Seems the company made a bad investment when buying out another national communication corporations local internet and television accounts and instead of making cuts from the top down, roughly 50% of the local work force was hit with a pay cut of 45% or more while the CEO received a raise earning her $12 million a year! To add insult to injury she had the nerve to personally fly in on her private helicopter to delivery the bad news to an unsuspecting workforce. This information was so disturbing to me that I personally will never invest in their services from now on. Unless this CEO built this company from the ground up (which she didn't) there is no way she is worth that kind of a gross salary! Even if she had founded the company, I'd hope that a majority would be reinvested into the company or given to a charitable organization. Heck, we don't even make 100th of 1% of that each year and we give a percentage of sales back to charity!
Still is this one woman's overcompensation and greed the root cause of the unemployment rate in America? Is it the outsourcing of our jobs to foreign companies? Or is it that our country has so many incentives to have a comfortable live without working for it that people have learned it's easier to collect an unemployment check rather than getting off the couch and doing some good old manual labor for minimum wage.
What frustrates me is that as a small business owner I don't have the luxury of unemployment, health care or even workman's comp. We struggle to keep the doors open and the lights on, live off macaroni & cheese and only go to the doctor if a router bit tries to rip off our hand and the wound is too large to patch at home! If I closed our doors tomorrow we'd couldn't go to the State office and get government assistance while we figure out what we want to be when we grow up!
When our money troubles started a couple of years ago, Ryan suggested we look into food stamps to help keep food in the house, I refused and still do. Sure it's a pride thing, but also why should I take food out of the mouths of hungry children or the homeless when I'm perfectly capable of figuring out new ways to make our business grow and earn money. Neither of us have a handicap that prevents us from earning a living and providing for ourselves. If more people would own up to their responsibilities as citizen's of the human race, quit bitching about what a tough lot in life they have been dealt and in the words of Nike, Just Do It, I think that we would be in a much better place than we are today!
Outsourcing is bad, greed is bad, but laziness is worse because it is something we all can control. Wasting energy marching up and down our city streets without a clear purpose is just that, a waste of energy. I hope that someone stands up with a clear message and idea for change soon so that we can all start to work on making much needed improvements.
