tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post1264014943304529075..comments2024-03-27T11:22:03.840-04:00Comments on Ramona's Voices: Labor in America: Those were the DaysRamona Grigghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-42249502198145701832010-09-22T07:35:31.420-04:002010-09-22T07:35:31.420-04:00Hi Rebecca, and welcome. Your last two sentences ...Hi Rebecca, and welcome. Your last two sentences are chillingly accurate. It's all about taking down this administration. If you ask those angry people what the plan is to reconstruct the country and get us back on our feet, they draw a blank. That's because there IS no plan. They stupidly follow the "status-quo, take our country back" message, not realizing they're playing right into the hands of the corporate-bloated Chamber of Commerce.<br /><br />We have to stop them and there isn't much time. I'm getting nervous.Ramona Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-6600957163577753122010-09-21T16:35:01.955-04:002010-09-21T16:35:01.955-04:00I just happened to stumble upon your blog while do...I just happened to stumble upon your blog while doing research for a class assignment. Bravo. Sometimes it seems as though everyone has lost their mind. Where were all these angry, rabble-rousing teabaggers eight years ago?! <br />An unpaid for war? <br />No problem!<br />Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy in the midst of a war?<br />Sure thing!<br /> They don't care if their country fails, as long as Obama goes down with it. They have a point to prove after all...Rebecca Curtohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13184483402305869945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-34660408752654199772010-09-09T23:31:59.232-04:002010-09-09T23:31:59.232-04:00That's the dirty little secret. Companies aren...<i>That's the dirty little secret. Companies aren't being killed off because they're not profitable. They're being killed off because they're not profitable enough.</i><br /><br />That is precisely it. When the <i>new</i> owners got RCA and GE and Westinghouse and all the rest they were interested in one thing. Bigger and bigger profits and when the company or part of it did not give them this, off it went to the trash heap.cmaukonenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00417856447072420884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-83907231543175234572010-09-07T23:37:04.946-04:002010-09-07T23:37:04.946-04:00This is one of the best commentaries on Labor I ha...This is one of the best commentaries on Labor I have ever read and the issues stay and continue. What we need is that edge to the curve that can move this center stage and either by Legislation or Rules of Order, but something needs to be done. The Voices are out there and those in power need to listen. Even the Kings had their Day in Court...Well done Ramona, well done. NedraAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-33353898568336154582010-09-06T21:42:38.788-04:002010-09-06T21:42:38.788-04:00Lelo, I have read your comments and you're eve...Lelo, I have read your comments and you're every bit an American. You're interested and concerned about what happens in this country, and, like the rest of us, you're wanting to do what you can to make it a better place. We can't ask for any more than that.<br /><br />I'm honored that you take the time to read what I write. Thank you so much.Ramona Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-81188528232543033212010-09-06T20:11:11.712-04:002010-09-06T20:11:11.712-04:00Love your post. I know nothing on the labor movem...Love your post. I know nothing on the labor movement. So I feel at lost in all of this. <br /><br />I am not even considered american, by some standards, but I love your voice.lelocolonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13863848230674917354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-18039967228770551792010-09-06T19:29:10.003-04:002010-09-06T19:29:10.003-04:00Hey Stan, greed is just so obviously the problem b...Hey Stan, greed is just so obviously the problem but lucky for them we can't make laws against it. Nothing stopping them from taking our jobs elsewhere but I don't have to call them Americans. They're not, but they're still reaping the benefits.<br /><br />They feel no moral obligation toward the people of this country, and they know we can't legislate that, either.<br /><br />What we can do is yell and scream--just like those union rabble-rousers above--and if enough of us do it somebody will have to listen.<br /><br />You can't shame them, you just have to force them to give up their booty and share. That's what Obama and the cowardly Dems are afraid to do, and that's why we're still in this mess.Ramona Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-27256621399676763912010-09-06T19:23:15.854-04:002010-09-06T19:23:15.854-04:00Thanks, AT, and welcome. Nice to see you here. F...Thanks, AT, and welcome. Nice to see you here. Frustration doesn't even begin to describe it. If I could just understand what's happening, then maybe I could settle down and get a little rockin' in.<br /><br />(Nah. . .)Ramona Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-34941125086272036062010-09-06T19:20:53.118-04:002010-09-06T19:20:53.118-04:00Alan, I thought I answered you but it's not ap...Alan, I thought I answered you but it's not appearing, so. . .<br /><br />I agree that the dirty little secret is outsourcing--or so it seems given the little attention it gets from the media. Good paying American jobs have left these shores by the millions and once the Big Guys got a taste of the really obscenely obscene profits, there's no going back. They're not sharing, even with other Americans.<br /><br />We don't make anything anymore and it would take an effort the size of gearing up for WWII to rebuild and retool in order to get factories up and running again. I wish I could say the powers-that-be will react with that same kind of urgency but I don't see it happening.<br /><br />But how those guys can hornswoggle nearly half the voting population into believing that the rich and powerful will do the right thing--after all the evidence before them--well, it's just baffling.<br /><br />I don't have any answers either. But that never stopped me from looking for them. It's not just a game of hide-and-seek. This is serious now. We have to do something, and do it fast. I heard Obama today, and he actually sounded like he finally gets it. We'll see.Ramona Grigghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07160614050077886238noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-55285824491129808942010-09-06T16:41:39.100-04:002010-09-06T16:41:39.100-04:00I so agree with Alan. It is not enough just to be...I so agree with Alan. It is not enough just to be profitable anymore. Companies have to have soaring profits or it's no good. We see it everywhere, in every corporate sector. And the additional profits come from bilking the laborers, or getting cheap labor by outsourcing, or reducing healthcare, or not paying their fair share of taxes. Greed is our dirty little secret. But it's not even dirty, and it sure as hell isn't a secret anymore.<br />The president says he doesn't know what else to do to get people working. He's tried everything and nothing works. That's because the Captains of Industry, corporate leaders favor the Repubs and want President Obama to fail. So they are taking their profits and sitting on them. They are not investing in jobs, increasing business, starter companies, real estate market, anything. They are just holding onto the money and waiting for him to fail so they can get another Repub in to give them the keys to the treasury again.<br />And once that happens, I hope these bible-thumping, anti-spending-unless spent on corporate profits, teabaggers better start yelling at their Conservative spenders. Repubs have always way overspent. They just blame the Liberals on it. We spend too much on our "agenda". Just so happens our agenda is to help our nation be great, not just to help our wealthiest 2% get even wealthier.<br />Ugh. It makes me sick.<br />Happy Labor Day, Ramona. For what it's worth, I hear you. and you, too Allan. I hear you loud and clear.Stan in NHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09473396450228240345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-13581265216037316952010-09-06T12:50:48.486-04:002010-09-06T12:50:48.486-04:00Well said. I feel your frustration. Some day mayb...Well said. I feel your frustration. Some day maybe people won't go into a tizzy when the word "socialism" is brought up.another tropehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17453351111299785275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772956368752433326.post-68060127650408000312010-09-06T12:00:38.009-04:002010-09-06T12:00:38.009-04:00A number of posts ago, I gave you a link to an eco...A number of posts ago, I gave you a link to an economist's article on why things were better overall (and especially for working people) when the exceedingly wealthy paid significantly higher taxes. The nut of it was that they then availed themselves of the deductions they could get by reinvesting and paying workers.<br /><br />Sadly, I think our society has become too corrupted now, too many at the top are far too seduced by large donors for the expensive media campaigns. I don't think we're going to be able to reclaim the era of a non-stratified, non-polarized society.<br /><br />For the most part, we don't make things here any longer. And it's not that we can't make things and make money doing it, it's that the investment circles can make more money by offshoring things.<br /><br />That's the dirty little secret. Companies aren't being killed off because they're not profitable. They're being killed off because they're not profitable enough.<br /><br />And the right has found ways to persuade even many working people that their interests are best served by voting against their interests. (Of course, as we know, the left was largely complicit in this when it chose to dismiss labor as a bunch of retrograde racists back in the 1970's, and we're still paying that price.)<br /><br />So...what to do? <br /><br />I have no answers, none that are simple or straightforward anyway. It's all I can do to come up with the questions I raise.<br /><br />I did have the joy of engineering an AFL-CIO Building Trades event recently, and Richard Trumka was the keynote speaker. Several more of him at the forefront might be a good start...Alanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06939468809703630844noreply@blogger.com