I've received a huge response from unions, managers (active and retired), and postal workers from all over the country regarding my March 24 article on post office corruption and employee abuse (“A Thief Is a Thief — Even When They Work for the Government”) that I need the time to sort through all of my email and documentation. (Milton Allimadi of the Black Star News asked me if I had a staff to help me with the task. I could only laugh).
But with the pleas for help I have received from postal employees around the country, I am beginning to recognize that what started out as one article, then a series, needs to become a crusade.
I am a former postal employee myself. The public has no idea how hard postal workers work to provide them with mail service. Too often they have to fight their managers (who are rewarded exclusively on how much money they can save) to do it. In the weeks to come, we will lay it out for you.
There is more than one side to this story. While most postal employees are dedicated workers, they are not blameless regarding the condition in which they find themselves. I recognized long ago that the United States Postal Service was a microcosm of America. Just like the American people, the apathy of postal employees has allowed too many of the people representing them to become more aligned with those who have a vested interest in their exploitation.
Where They Failed
Also like the American people, postal employees were too willing to turn a blind eye while their fellow employees were being abused. Now all are under the gun. The very system that was to protect their interests is geared to promote their exploitation.
It will take an extraordinary effort just to regain their rights. The thrust of the coming articles will explain why it is incumbent upon the American people to help them.
While sorting through the information I am receiving, let’s develop perspective. I am revisiting an article I wrote several months ago regarding the attack on the American middle class, because it's important to recognize that what is going on with Ms. Joann Snow is not just an assault on the rights of one postal worker but on America and the American way of life. If we don't stop it now, the business model victimizing Ms. Snow will eventually consume us all. I wrote:
The Role of Poor, Minorities and Middle Class in the New World Order
The phrase “new world order” says it all. But in our blind naivete and the belief that it can't happen here, the vast majority of American people believe the phrase refers to the reshuffling, in terms of importance, of the various nations around the world. We fail to understand the change is more profound. The new world order also applies to the reshuffling of the internal economic structure within individual nations.
That means that as the world moves from many separate national economies to one global economy, the class structure of the various nations must be adjusted to accommodate the new state of affairs. In turn, that means that the high standard of living enjoyed by the American middle class since World War II no longer can be sustained in an economy where many of America’s competitors are paying their workers less per week than many of us spend on lunch per day. That accounts for why American jobs are being outsourced to other countries. Wal-mart, one of the largest retail corporations in the world, has based its business model on purchasing most of its merchandise from China to undercut the price demands of its competitors.
Wal-mart is a microcosm of the revised American business strategy under the new world order. One can look at Wal-mart’s business model and the socioeconomic profile of its employees, and see exactly what direction American business, and our society, is headed.
Wal-mart’s Craftiness
Wal-mart’s business strategy is to hire easily replaceable, low-skilled employees at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. It takes advantage of their precarious condition to squeeze every dime of profit out of the company’s operation. They aggressively fight organized labor to hold down employee wages and benefits. They deny their employees anything approaching affordable health-care.
Business no longer is a friend of the American people. Where business once was our partner in a symbiotic relationship, it is a predator to consumers and employees alike. Our parents could pull into a gas station and a guy in a white shirt and bow tie would run out to check their oil and water, then put air in their tires as he pumped 22-cents-a- gallon gas into their tanks. I know gas no longer is that cheap, but what happened to the service?
Once it was considered unseemly for a woman to pump gas. I don’t think my mother knew how to operate a gas pump. Now it is so routine that if you are a passenger, it no longer is politically correct to even offer to pump the gas for a woman. Now my mother would not only have to pump her own gas, check her own oil, and put air in her tires, but they would make her pay extra for the air. Think about that. They charge us for air
The reason is greed. When the United States had a thriving industrial economy, one class complemented the other. Labor was well paid and given the security of knowing that they had a job for life. They had the confidence to purchase goods that the corporations produced. That allowed the companies that sold the goods to prosper, to the benefit of the investor class.
But in a global market, to remain competitive with countries that pay their workers just above slave wages, corporations have to squeeze every concession from the labor class.
Somebody Has to Pay
Since the heads of these corporations must make huge profits to justify their unconscionably oversized bonuses, they prey on their workers by undercutting their benefits and outsourcing the very jobs that the economy is dependent upon to sustain the corporation and the nation. Living from bonus to bonus, they only think about themselves. They never consider the negative impact of their irresponsible behavior on the economic viability of the nation.
When Wall Street or the Fed announces that the economy is thriving, they are not talking about the American economy, only the investor class. A thriving economy means they are successfully squeezing the American worker to the limit. That kind of greed led to last year’s economic disaster. Nothing has changed.
In the new world order, corporations no longer need the American worker to sustain their profits. They can outsource their labor, purchase and sell their goods overseas. The American worker is no longer a partner in the corporation’s viability. The only time they need us is when they want to tap the treasury for our tax dollars to pay off their gambling debts.
This is the same group the Republicans and Liebercrats are trying to protect, the group the wingnuts are fighting so hard to keep between them and their doctors. There should be no doubt the Republicans are protecting the insurance industry that victimized us in the Wall Street bailout. Having taken our money, they are using it to block affordable healthcare for the American people.
They were paid billions by large corporations to cover corporate gambling debts. AIG accepted corporate funds, knowing they didn’t have the resources to cover the debts if the corporations got into trouble. When the corporations rolled snake eyes, AIG turned to the American people and said, “You have to cover these debts or else. We and our clients are too big to be allowed to fail.”
An article in Wikipedia points out that the AIG Financial Products division, headed by Joseph Cassano, in London, had entered into credit default swaps to insure $441 billion worth of securities originally rated AAA. Of those securities, $57.8 billion were structured debt securities backed by sub-prime loans. Not only did the American taxpayer pay off this insurance company’s debt, but a debt that originated in another country.
Now your money is being taken once again.
But this time they are taking your money to pay your Y representative to block an attempt by President Obama to stop them from cutting your throat in a time of crisis, just as they did the corporations on Wall Street.
There is one very big difference. You and your family are not too big to fail. Without the benefit of a robust healthcare reform, you will bite the dust, with the corrupt assistance of many of your own representatives.
I am sure many will call me a crazy socialist. They will continue to tear up as Boehner, Lieberman and the other demagogues shuffle out and look into the camera with the solemnity of the Pope. Remember, when they tell you that they are fighting for truth, justice and the American way, the real truth is so glaring that sometimes it slips through in the most unlikely places.
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said the following:
“This may be an audacious suggestion. But I would suggest we put aside the healt care debate until next year, the same way we put cap and trade and climate change and talk now about the essentials, the war and money.”
There you have it, “war and money.” That sums up your place in the new world order.
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree@verizon.net and ewattree@gmail.com
You may learn more about Mr. Wattree at wattree.blogspot.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everybody who doesn’t look, think and act like me. It’s just that God does
