Chicago Factory Worker Occupation Shows What Happens When the System Fails (We All Fail)

OK, so here's how I was told it was supposed to all work growing up:

1) You go to college

2) You get a good job (because you went to college)

3) Your boss pays you because he makes money in the business you both work at.

The reality in 2008:

1) college is becoming much too expensive for the majority of Americans to afford

2) no one is hiring because no one is making any money because no one is buying because no one is making any money etc, etc...

3) Your boss lays you off because most of point 2 applies to him AND in the case of one Chicago factory , he doesn't even pay you

See, here's what's going on right now in a factory in Chicago according to an article at ChicagoTribune.com:

Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began their sit-in Friday, the last scheduled day of the plant's operation. On Saturday, about 50 workers could be seen through a window sitting on chairs and pallets on the factory floor. Reporters were asked to stay out of the plant's work area. 

If you have a Digg.com account, please Digg this important labor rights story .

See, the company that owns the factory isn't making much money these days thanks to no one spending any money thanks to them not making any money these days.  Sorry, you know this bit.

But remember a few months back when King George talked about our entire economy being in danger?  He also made the point in that speech that "every day lending" had to continue.  This suggests that loans are something businesses take out all the time just to keep the gears of capitalism lubricated.  

This suggests that without said loans, most businesses would fall apart.  

Whose idea was a system that had to perform like a shark?  If it stops moving, it dies. 

The problem is, that because we're all relying on this system, we all suffer.  

So, banks fail, and can't give every day loans to businesses that rely on those loans to pay employees.  Employees then can't eat or pay their bills or their mortgages and so they go hungry and homeless.  Then, the banks don't get paid back and they can't give loans and they can't loan to businesses and--sorry, again, you know this bit...

Yeah, good plan, assholes. Does anyone else see the circle-jerk-cum-downward-spiral there?

And just why should businesses need every day loans to pay their employees?  Shouldn't their employee's pay come from what the company makes?  And if they can't make money why are banks giving loans to them?

This whole system sounds completely screwed up and I've lost even more faith in American political, business and financial leaders for supporting this thing.  As a fiction writer I couldn't get away with a premise like this one.  

You know the old saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link?  What happens when all the links are weak?  The chain morphs into another cliched metaphor--the house of cards.  This was just a matter of time, folks.  The signs of our failing economy were all around us, too.  I've been blogging for years about various canaries in the mineshaft.  I wrote a post a year-and-a-half ago about how Tower Records closing down was a sure sign our economy was in decline, like it or not.

As a former fanboy I watched my most prized scifi toys sell for a fraction of what they should have gone for.  As an inhabitant of a major American city, I saw a number of local businesses close and get replaced by chains like Starbucks or Blockbuster (even if they weren't coffee shops or video stores in the first place).  Another canary is that our currency isn't based on any thing real--no gold standard, no silver standard, just the credit of Americans as being able to produce goods and services.

Of course, America just lost over a half-million jobs last month , so you can imagine how much that hurts the value of our dollar.  Less jobs means less ability for the American people to produce goods and services which means less value for our dollar.  That, in turn, weakens our economy even more.

You know what this all is?  It's a series of dominoes falling in very slow motion.  

These dominoes are still falling.  Can the Obama administration stop them?

Posted via email from thepete's posterous

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