I guess it's really true that hard times bring out the real personality behind the mask. I suppose that goes 10x for economic disasters that supposedly happen on the order of once every 100 years or so, because the masks seem to be getting ripped off and what they're revealing is pretty darn ugly.Lately, I've been getting an earful on how despicable union workers are from some of my colleagues here at House Harkonnen - especially auto workers. If there were not actual people who were affected by all this crap, I suppose the whole thing would be comical but considering that there's going to be a lot of human carnage throughout this journey through linear miles of concertina wire that our captains of finance have cleverly laid out around us in all directions, I pretty much cringe whenever I think of what this new year is going to bring us.
Now, I work in an industry that literally makes products that no one stands behind. Unique, apparently, in all commercial industries (except, of course, the financial industry), the Software industry basically sells shit that they barely guarantee will install. The entire industry literally does not guarantee that the products they sell will do anything at all - all they warranty is the DVD or CD ROM you have will be able to be read. The fact that your computer blows up, loses all your financial data and regurgitates all your personal information to some site in Russia... well, that's just the way things work in Software you see.
Which is why it's literally hilarious to hear anyone in this industry talk with disdain about union workers of any type. I mean, say what you will about auto workers, but at least their products don't randomly blow up and take out half a city block in the process. And given the numbers of time wasting morons that add less than zero value to anything that is done, it's even more hilarious to hear anyone in the Software industry dis the teacher's union.
But such is the wonderful world we find ourselves today. When
we open up our collective wallet and shell out god only knows how many
hundreds of billions out to the financial services industry without so
much as a blink, we spend our collective moralizing about how much per
hour an automotive worker makes in Detroit. A masturbatory act made
all the more comical when you realize that the mean - not the average
- annual salary in the securities industry is $400,000. That's about
ten times the average American salary (a number that's higher than the
mean American salary, due to our wonderful income distribution here in
the USA).
And the great thing about being someone in the securities industry this year is that because of the government bailout, they won't have to be missing out on the hefty bonus that they've become accustomed to. While not on the usual galactic scale, due to the largess of the US tax payer, they'll be getting 40% bonuses (on their 400K base, mind you) instead of a 30% bonus.
But the automotive union worker and his pension are subject to the collective wrath of the American public - which his family is, unfortunately, not going to get due to the collapse of their industry and the no doubt draconian terms that will be forced upon them by a bailout only a puritan can love).
It's enough to make you seriously scratch your head in wonder just what in the world our collective sense of outrage is really directed at.
I mean, here we have employees of an industry which simply can't make a product that even remotely acts how it has been advertised, wagging their moralistic fingers at people who actually build stuff that at least works as advertised. Worse, these same moralistic geniuses can't seem to notice the securities and financial industry loading up their dump trucks with gold bars as they trundle off to the Caymans thanks to the bailout.
Weird.
And the great thing about being someone in the securities industry this year is that because of the government bailout, they won't have to be missing out on the hefty bonus that they've become accustomed to. While not on the usual galactic scale, due to the largess of the US tax payer, they'll be getting 40% bonuses (on their 400K base, mind you) instead of a 30% bonus.
But the automotive union worker and his pension are subject to the collective wrath of the American public - which his family is, unfortunately, not going to get due to the collapse of their industry and the no doubt draconian terms that will be forced upon them by a bailout only a puritan can love).
It's enough to make you seriously scratch your head in wonder just what in the world our collective sense of outrage is really directed at.
I mean, here we have employees of an industry which simply can't make a product that even remotely acts how it has been advertised, wagging their moralistic fingers at people who actually build stuff that at least works as advertised. Worse, these same moralistic geniuses can't seem to notice the securities and financial industry loading up their dump trucks with gold bars as they trundle off to the Caymans thanks to the bailout.
Weird.
Leave a comment