[milfovoxapl]

Seems more and more life is becoming a peripheral to work. Shouldn't your employment be in support of your home life and not vice-versa?

We're freaking ants, sucking on the corporate queens tit.

[PharmaDrMan]

Just 2 of my favourite quotes:

"Do what you love, love what you do."

"Find a job that you'll love, and you'll never have to work again."

[L8fGLM4d]

Hell I'm screwed...

(Doing accountancy at uni)

[LypeReexy]

I agree and I don't want a life like that for myself. The only way I see getting out of the system is to become one -- start your own company. Even then you are still answering to the government; paying taxes, following the laws, and all that ****. But at least you'll have the mindset that it's YOUR company, it's YOUR responsibility. When you start your own business you'll actually want to work because the only person it will really benefit is you. When you're working for somebody else, it's not beneficial to you ... Sure you're getting paid, but in the long run? You get nothing -- no satisfaction.

[Prealiitellg]

Hell I'm screwed...

indeed you are my fellow bean counter

[milfovoxapl]

I had my own PC shop up in Canada until I divorced out of the country. I couldn't get away from corporate cash cows then, either.

When I can only buy 50 CPUs at a time and Dell can buy thousands upon thousands, they would sell retail what I paid wholesale.

I'm just against the whole mega-corp idea. Look at the Wal-Mart effect...it's not good for anyone in the long run. In the short run, sure, convenience and low price seem nice, until jobs start disappearing and wages drop.

Ever wonder why it takes two incomes now to match the buying power of one in the 60's? Because Corporate America pays just enough to its employees to keep people floating. It wouldn't hurt a corporation like McDonalds or Wal-Mart to cut back on expansion a bit and take care of its employees. Ever wonder why fast food has a 90% turn-over rate? Because it's slavery for pittance.

The Working class is being squeezed out of the American Dream because of math. Any corner that can be cut to earn profit will be cut.

All my grandparents worked for the same company all their lives, from the time they were teens to the time they retired. My father has worked for several large corporations including, most recently, Boeing. He's been there 20 years and is getting laid off because they found somewhere cheaper to produce the aircraft parts.

How much cheaper? 3% cheaper.

So now 1000+ highly skilled, highly educated and devoted employees are out of work in an area that used to be supported by the cold war (Oak Ridge, TN, a major Nuclear Weapons production city...formally) but now is pretty depressed unless you have a PHD and can get on Oak Ridge National Labs or as a doctor or lawyer or something.

Manufacturing jobs...well, do I have to say anything? Look at Detroit.

It doesn't make sense to cut 1,000 jobs where the majority of the work force has been there for 15+ years and have earned acclaim for most of those years for a 3% reduction in cost.

Employer loyalty has been sold for brand loyalty. And that's not good for anyone.

"Corporation: Noun: An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility." -Ambrose Bierce

[valiumcheapll]

I agree and I don't want a life like that for myself. The only way I see getting out of the system is to become one -- start your own company.

The best way out of the system is to work part time, forgo certain luxuries to live cheaply and spend the time you get in return doing something creative that you enjoy.

[L8fGLM4d]

indeed you are my fellow bean counter

You do accountancy? please tell me your quite well off lool

[inilbowly]

As we used to say back home:

Work to live, don't live to work. [thumbup]

And honestly, the only people that the folks in Detroit can blame are themselves. Why? Unions, plain and simple. My dad works for GM. When he was up in management, he got to watch his benefits get whittled away by the union to pay for the pensions and benefits of the hourly guys. He's back on hourly now, with the attitude of sticking it to the company. So where's the loyalty there? If the unions would learn and realize that the companies can't pay what they used to because people live longer and have pensions, not to mention 401(k)s and IRAs, what are they supposed to do? Personally, I think any unionized company should drop the unions like a hot potato, as I'm sure they'd start making money again.

And you say that Boeing is producing a part for 3% cheaper? Dude. . .if they produce $1B worth of parts (completely feasible), that's $30M in savings. How many pensions can that pay? How much health care can that cover?

I read a few articles in the WSJ about a town in Indiana I believe it was that was going to turn to a ghost town because a factory was shutting down because the union had bled the thing out. People were bitching and whining "Oh, without the union, I'll only make $30,000, and won't be able to take a vacation for 4 weeks out to California! I have a $400,000 house and a yacht I'm still paying on, not to mention 2 $50,000 cars!" Wow. . .you honestly thought your unskilled or slightly skilled labor would be around for a while? Please. Robots do it longer, faster, don't need breaks, nor do they need benefits. So instead of needing that unskilled job, learn a skill and maintain the robots your company just bought.

Anyway, point being, most of the time, employees have one thing to blame for the ****: unions. If there's a union, there's most likely corporate ass-raping around the corner somewhere. Look at either Mitsubishi or Mazda, i forget which. THere are tonnes of factories in America now, and their employees refuse unionization because the company actually takes care of them.

There's no company loyalty these days; that's were **** started going wrong.

Edit: I forgot to add. . .for that $30M a year that they're saving, based on a $60,000 a year pension. . .do the math and find out how many old farts that are golfing or sitting on their ass drinking beer that supports. And keep in mind, spouses generally pull benefits after the retired employee dies. Now you've got an idea why most of the large companies cut costs left and right. And old **** retiring from GM at 55, living to be 80, will cost the company at LEAST $750K. Now, those old farts might have needed that pension 20 or 30 years ago, but today? With 401(k)s and IRAs? Hell no. . .yet they still bitch and whine for them.

Just yet something else to show the corporate blood-letting the wonderful denizens of USA cause.

[Tamawaipsemek]

Mine is slowly becoming Work is life. Life is work. either way I see it.

As one black man on the streets told me one day as I drove by and stopped at a red light in my car...

"Nigga got to do what he got to do, bless you child!"

[Accecyncphory]

The best way out of the system is to work part time, forgo certain luxuries to live cheaply and spend the time you get in return doing something creative that you enjoy.

Definitely.

I think people are slaves to the corporation because they let themselves be enslaved by consumerism. Corporations spend billions convincing us that the path to happiness is through "The Product". But you'll just bust your gut to get it, spend no time using it because you're enslaved to your perceived need to get the next product and a year later it ends up on a landfill anyway.