Damn Fools

I hadn’t seen Max Angst for almost two months. Bad winter weather and bad health – my arthritis has become much worse – kept me in the house. But, then one day the sun came out and the temperature went up and I just had to get out of the house. I would have enjoyed a walk down to Burnie’s Bar, but my sore knees wouldn’t allow that, but I did crank the car window down as I drove over there. Max was at his usual spot at the far corner of the bar with a pint of Guiness there in front of him.
“Art, just the man I wanted to see. Sit down and have a stout,” my friend,” Max called out.
I did as he asked and was glad to have a sip of the dark, heavy brew. After all Paddy’s day is only two weeks away.
“Art, you know that I try to be fair in what I say, but the future of my country makes declare any worker who supports the conservative power structure in this country is a horses ass.” Max said.
“You obviously have something on your mind, Max. Let me have it.”
“I remember the ideals of the fifties, sixties and seventies. I remember the average American believed that he lived in a system in which hard work and a little careful economy would provide a good life for him and his family. He believed the next generation—his kids-- would do even better than he did. He believed he didn’t have to take any crap from anyone, even his boss. If his boss got out of line, he’d have the union on his back. The average American had a good job, owned his own home and was fairly free of debt. Then in nineteen- eighty we elected a conservative president, Ronald Reagan, and all those good things went down the tubes. For years the bosses were trying to weaken the unions. When Reagan got elected he appointed management oriented conservatives to the National Labor Relations Board and the decisions went in favor of management. Today workers are more productive than ever but their pay is a much smaller part of the corporate financial pictures; the managers and the investors are getting all the benefit of this increased productivity. The benefit situation stems from so called Free Trade. The corporations are competing with foreign companies that have lower wage and benefits costs than they have. Of course management doesn’t want to cut their pay and benefits and they have to keep the investors happy or they’ll go elsewhere, so they cut back on employee wages, health care and retirement. The conservative government not being concerned with the worker go along with this under the rubric of free trade. In the first place Free Trade is bull much international trade is carried out through secret negotiations aimed at improving the interest of the investment class which results in the management class coming out ahead by being granted higher pay and benefits. The interests of the employees are never considered until its time to adjust costs to guarantee profits. Then the employees find their wages and benefits diminished. If the Government had the workers interests at heart, and the workers do comprise the largest portion of the population, there would be tariffs that would control prices of goods coming into the country so American businesses could compete without ruining the people who work for them. And those Federal agencies that are supposed to keep an eye on Business would actually do their job. Well, Art, you see why I think workers who support the conservatives, and the elections of the last twenty-five years show there are a lot of them, are damn fools. They’re attacking their own interests.