The Adjustment Bureau

Along with the Matrix, Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Minority Report, etc., the latest movie "The Adjustment Bureau" causes one to think about that old phrase:

Who's choking the Chicken?

I am not a big reader of The Washington Post, however the article by Ezra Klein on the idea of "The Adjustment Bureau" and Washington being able to perform a complicated plan is worth reading. Mr. Klein clues us in on how "sophisticated it isn't":

But I tend to be shocked at how sophisticated it isn't. Communication between various political actors -- a crucial ingredient in any serious plan -- is surprisingly informal and inadequate. Members of Congress and their staffs don't really have access to secret, efficient networks of information. Instead, they read Roll Call and the Hill and The Washington Post and keep their televisions tuned to cable news, turning up the volume when a colleague involved in a bill they're interested in appears on the screen. Then everyone sits around and speculates about what they just heard. Most every political reporter can back me up when I say that it's extremely common for key players on both sides of the aisle to ask you what you're hearing or how you'd rate the chances of their bill -- and this typically happens when you're sitting down to ask them the very same questions. It's terribly disappointing and, I'm convinced, 100 percent genuine.

Here is the link:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/03/washington_is_bad_at_scheming.html

Mr. Klein has, to use another old phrase:

Hit the nail on the head

C'ya
Eagle Driver
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Will the Middle Class become Extinct?

There is a very interesting discussion over at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen that deals with the Removal of The Middle Class. E .D. Kain has made an interesting point:

"The truth is that the traditional middle class is simply less necessary to the flow of commerce in an economy dominated by a super-rich elite investor class. So policies that favor the middle class in America have slowly been weeded out in favor of policies which tilt toward investment banks and multi-national corporations. Consciously or not, these policies are designed to replace the middle class with a low-paid service class (which nevertheless has access to long lines of credit). This service class has very little political clout, and will have less and less as whatever good service jobs are outsourced or, in the public sector, stripped of collective bargaining rights (and then privatized and promptly outsourced)."

As a pilot of a major airline (union member) and a student of history, the attack on the middle-class worker has and is a consistent jealousy from the CEOs and VPs of Corporate-America. Many of us had to read Upton Sinclair's famous book The Jungle in High School. Maybe America needs to read it again. The quote from Wikipedia says it so clearly:

"The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel to point out the troubles of the working class and to show the corruption of the American meatpacking industry during the early-20th century. The novel depicts in harsh tones poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant living and working conditions, and hopelessness prevalent among the working class, which is contrasted with the deeply-rooted corruption on the part of those in power. Sinclair's observations of the state of turn-of-the-century labor were placed front and center for the American public to see, suggesting that something needed to be changed to get rid of American "wage slavery"."

As an employee who has provided multiple concessions of wages and benefits to "keep the company afloat", I find it quite revealing that those in the CEO and VP category received "bonuses" while the employees received wage reductions. I have additionally noticed that those in the government (both national and state) "leadership" positions are requiring the workers to take concession all while they continue to receive tremendous benefits including high grossing salaries and retirement salary for the rest of their life. I wonder what that costs the taxpayer? Don't you find it interesting the Congress does not have to live under the policies they direct?

Austerity is needed, however this season of austerity must be on the backs of all Americans, not just the union worker, not just on the Middle Class. CEOs, VPs, Congress, etc. must also bear the pain and even more as they are the "leaders". If you lead you take responsibility, period, dot, end of statement.

Maybe it is time for the American Worker to remove and reduce the CEOs, VPs, & Congress Representatives in the state and national forum.

Workers Unite!

Eagle Driver
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