Labor Day. The last weekend of barbecues; trips; meals; and the United States adding more girth to the average midsections of the masses. Consumption of gasoline (taxed); visits in hotels (taxed); amusement park foibles and entertainment (blowing the DI; or Disposable Income…also taxed). Yes; an incredible fun-filled memory complete with pictures; video via the happy camera; and outings.
One day a year to “celebrate” Labor Day…prior to the following week…when the corporations “trim” their labor hours and scale back all of the hours of their permanent hourly employees.
A celebration of Labor Day…and then it’s time to cut all of the hours and screw the employees (already at barely slave/subsistence wages); in preparation for fiscal and calendar years. Fiscal Year; starting in October; when the company figures all of its annual profits and losses; and prepares for the most crucial; sacred time of all: the last business quarter of the year. Happy Labor Day!
Labor Day marks the “shift;” and the (business) end of the summer…the final point of where everything begins to slow down: permanent hiring; raises; and the slicing of labor hours; in preparation for closing out “strong” in the last quarter. Temporary hires go on the rise. You’ll see it in every big-box and “cookie cutter” (franchise) establishment and grocery store.
The full-time employees who have been barely scraping by have their 30 to 35 hours per week cut down by at least 25%; and most of them 50%. Then the store hires seasonal/temporary employees to carry them over through the fourth quarter. The employee who has been working at the grocery store in a particular “department” for 5 or more years is then at 20 to 25 hours per week. Five employees such as that; and the labor hour “shortage” for the firm would be about 15 hours times 5; or 75 hours.
But if each of these permanent employees makes about $10.00 per hour? Their hours are “replaced” by seasonal/temporary employees…mostly high school or college kids; to make minimum wage. Also; the hours are split into; say; 4-hour shifts. This ensures they’re part-time; minimum wage; at-will employees signing statements that it’s temporary and not full-time work…for a specified period. The Happy Grocery Store then avoids paying unemployment after they leave.
The wages are also written off as a labor expense; but lower (by at least $3.00 per labor hour) than would have been paid to the permanent employees. The lowered wages assure the continuance of expenses to offset income for taxes; yet stanch the outflow of cash normally spent on permanent employees. Because of the “Holiday Months” of the last quarter; an army of temporary employees are hired; and terminated just before the New Year so there’s no carryover on withholding into the next calendar year.
Meanwhile; the permanent employees can either “suck razorblades” for the months this takes place…Happy Holiday time ends after Valentine’s Day…or they can leave. The ones that stay are forced to make up for the shortage by finding another job…in a time of the year when hiring is on the wane; if not stopped entirely. The Happy Grocery Store also frowns in a very mean manner because their permanent serfs are trying to find other employment. The Happy Store caused the shortfall; and they expect their permanent employee to just have their hours (and wages) cut by a quarter to one half…and just smile fawningly. They expect contentment; obedience; and absolute availability. “Flexible schedule” means only one thing: you bend; at the will of the employer; when needed; and in the direction he pushes.
The only ones immune to this are department heads; store managers; and the rarely seen (district managers) or never seen (VP’s and higher). The rarely seen smilingly visit and lay out policy for their vassal-administrators: the store managers for the fief. The hours and policies are set; and the store managers and lower (it flows downhill) carry out (enforce) the policies.
These store managers and department heads and supervisors must make these cuts in order to maintain their own hours and also to receive bonuses (usually tabulated just before the end of the Calendar year); swathed in the heartwarming trappings of Christmas bonuses for the managers. They’ll flip the permanent employees who have stayed a $20 gift card (usable in the store; of course) and some “Gaines burgers” such as a free turkey or ham. This is supposed to suffice for a bandage on an arterial bleed for the employee; who is supposed to thank the manager; perhaps even genuflecting and kissing the cloak while doing so.
Small recompense after management has just raped the employee financially out of half the hours and wages; a seasonal purgatory that will last until the second week of February.
As the corporation rakes in the money; and even writes off the “gift cards;” and the bonuses for the management-henchmen.
See it for what it is; but understand: acceptance and complacency have enabled the corporations and their oligarch directors and owners to blossom into a many-headed hydra; in bed with the taxing authorities; government; and law enforcement gendarmes…all of which in unison perpetuate the misery and preserve the existing established order.
The opposite of Communism is not Capitalism; a system that eventually denigrates into a form of slavery with the “trappings” of freedom and free choice; but really translates into each corporation being a “fief.” Laws and policies that crush the worker into a paycheck-to-paycheck type of existence protect each fief. Workers are taxed continually and under continuous surveillance and regulation by the government. No real recourse is provided for the employee; and as the corporation has a greater infusion of taxes into the system; its side is “championed” over the lowly employee’s position.
The opposite of Communism is a Free-Market economy; unregulated and unfettered by a government with politicians who consider themselves the new “landed gentry” and royalty without titles…living off of the fat of the land; and the produce of the serfs; and the taxes by the corporations. We have never experienced a truly unregulated Free-Market economy; where everyone can enjoy the fruits of their labors and actually have a chance. To leave your heirs a million; you have to have 2 million…so that you can pay the Happy Government a million in death taxes.
Labor Day…another BS day to dull the public consciousness in the “bread and circus” manner; and distract them from what is happening. The government eats half of the cookie flipped to the employee; and the following week after Labor Day; that cookie will be cut in half for most of the employees…with the government still taking their 50% of that. The existing economic; social; and political order; making the “have-nots” believe they are “haves” when it can all be taken in the blink of an eye. Taken either in their lifetime or after they are gone; by the vultures in fed; state; and local government. Just as an afterthought; Dave Hodges of The Common Sense Show published an article entitled “The Real Reason Behind Social Media Censorship – It’s Not What You Think” and this excerpt alone really summarizes an important point:
“It is obvious that the election of Trump is being treated as a speed bump on the road to complete globalization of the planet. The dismantling of Hillary was a significant blow; but it has not stemmed the tide.”
One major first step toward this globalization is to control people economically…and a system that perpetuates misery; impoverishment; and the invisible shackles of taxes; overpriced goods and services; and underpayment…that system is key to the overall enslavement. Labor Day: the people labor; and the politicians and corporate oligarchy enjoy the fruits of your labors…speeding things toward the day when it will not be paid labor; but true slave labor in perpetuity.
