A few years ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said: "If You're Not Outraged, You're Not Paying Attention. " Are you outraged yet? You will be.
Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/programmersguild
And read this excerpt from The Jobless Jihad by Trude Diamond, UP board member.
"One notes a “disturbing video [on YouTube]… Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explain how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers.”
Are you getting the picture? This is why people with JD degrees are shelving books at Borders, and why engineers are working in seafood processing plants, and why people with journalism degrees are processing freight at Target, and why teachers are working in retail sales.
Employers prefer immigrant workers because their situation is more desperate: Conform or be deported. Immigrant workers truly are chained to the plantation. But greedy corporations won't stop with them.
Give 'em time. Employers like those coached by firms like Cohen & Grigsby (above) will turn the USA into one big plantation.
Are You outraged yet? Better pay attention.
Like Chinese water torture, they'll drip drip drip on working folks' rights until all of them are worn away.
Paychecks aren't keeping up, we know this. What happens when the costs of food, shelter, and transportation soar so far above paychecks that employers start offering on site dormitories to house their workers? Like they do in China. It couldn't happen here, could it?
Only if we're not paying attention: Watch the video, draw your own conclusions, and then:
WAKE UP!
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jobs. Show all posts
2.06.2008
5.30.2007
A Word About Poverty Pimps
Hey Poverty Pimps: the people you're supposed to be helping don't like you. That's because most of you--- you don't help them. You help yourselves.
You, poverty pimps, are people who live off jobs paid for with government grants and taxes and you work in any one of thousands of organizations that are supposed to use the government's dough (that's The People's money--OK?) to lift people out of poverty, move them into "housing," and cure them of drug addiction--what are you doing? What the #%!! are you doing?!!
Since when is a furnished room with a shared bathroom and shared cooking facilities (maybe) a home?
People want to make their own homes, decorate them, plant roots in a neighborhood or community, invite their family and friends over, cook a meal for them. People want some control over their lives, some creative outlet. Warehousing poor people in uniform rooms isn't housing them--it's controlling them. Where do poverty pimps live?
I've lived/talked/walked with homeless folk for awhile, and I learned some things. Homeless and formerly homeless people ONLY: jump in and tell me if I'm wrong, or if you disagree...
With all the money at the disposal of the poverty pimps, The People continue to sleep in subway trains, parks, abandoned buildings--because they can't afford rent. They need better paying jobs or rent subsidies. Take the tax breaks and subsidies away from poverty pimps and GIVE 'EM DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE! Here's a news flash: Most poor people want to work, even those with shaky health. They want good jobs with paychecks they can live on and support a family on. They want to start and run small businesses, and a lot of them have damn good ideas.
Here's another myth buster: Most former welfare recipients who've moved into jobs, either voluntarily or not, are proud of their jobs, proud that they're working, and they don't want to return to welfare, even though they could use a pay raise.
Most poor people don't want freebies. They want opportunities to make it on their own. Real opportunities-- not locked doors, walls, obstacle courses, and bureaucratic mazes. They want respect, and to live with dignity. They don't need your pity--or want it. They don't see themselves as victims and they don't want to wear your victim label. They want real tools they can use in the real world to really better their lives and themselves.
These are my impressions, arrived at from watching, listening and talking with real people. Am I wrong?
Word out.
You, poverty pimps, are people who live off jobs paid for with government grants and taxes and you work in any one of thousands of organizations that are supposed to use the government's dough (that's The People's money--OK?) to lift people out of poverty, move them into "housing," and cure them of drug addiction--what are you doing? What the #%!! are you doing?!!
Since when is a furnished room with a shared bathroom and shared cooking facilities (maybe) a home?
People want to make their own homes, decorate them, plant roots in a neighborhood or community, invite their family and friends over, cook a meal for them. People want some control over their lives, some creative outlet. Warehousing poor people in uniform rooms isn't housing them--it's controlling them. Where do poverty pimps live?
I've lived/talked/walked with homeless folk for awhile, and I learned some things. Homeless and formerly homeless people ONLY: jump in and tell me if I'm wrong, or if you disagree...
With all the money at the disposal of the poverty pimps, The People continue to sleep in subway trains, parks, abandoned buildings--because they can't afford rent. They need better paying jobs or rent subsidies. Take the tax breaks and subsidies away from poverty pimps and GIVE 'EM DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE! Here's a news flash: Most poor people want to work, even those with shaky health. They want good jobs with paychecks they can live on and support a family on. They want to start and run small businesses, and a lot of them have damn good ideas.
Here's another myth buster: Most former welfare recipients who've moved into jobs, either voluntarily or not, are proud of their jobs, proud that they're working, and they don't want to return to welfare, even though they could use a pay raise.
Most poor people don't want freebies. They want opportunities to make it on their own. Real opportunities-- not locked doors, walls, obstacle courses, and bureaucratic mazes. They want respect, and to live with dignity. They don't need your pity--or want it. They don't see themselves as victims and they don't want to wear your victim label. They want real tools they can use in the real world to really better their lives and themselves.
These are my impressions, arrived at from watching, listening and talking with real people. Am I wrong?
Word out.
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