the social costs of globalization
Greta lost a full-time permanent job to offshoring and like thousands of other people since globalization took off, she is now casually employed -- having been unable to find another full-time job with the pay, conditions and security she once enjoyed. Initially, she was forced to apply for social security payments and while grateful for the pittance she received she is still very angry.
"Not all countries," she says, "have a safety net for its citizens. Families are still expected to take care of their own in many places in the world. In this respect I consider myself very lucky. However, I have been a taxpayer all of my life and I object to being forced onto welfare when I am fit and able to work."
"Having and holding a job is often a health risk, but not having a job poses a far greater risk to our mental and physical health," says Greta. "Once the shock of job loss eased, the future looked very grim for those of us who no longer had a job. Some sunk into deep depression, some succumbed to illness due to stress lowering their immunity and some just decided to say ‘goodbye cruel world’."
Greta believes that the cost of taking care of increasing numbers of unemployed, underemployed and depressed people is going to overtax our already woeful health-care systems.
"The first thing most sensible unemployed people do," says Greta, "is cut back expenses. Yet, I found that it doesn't take long for a nest-egg to be depleted just by basic expenses such as rent and food."
"If more jobs go offshore and the economy crashes, can we afford to pay for the health-care and living expenses of another mass of laid-off workers on top of the welfare people we already help?" she asks. "Take it one step further, should we when there are corporate cowboys now living in the lap of luxury who caused these catastrophes?"
Greta is part of a grass-roots movement gaining momentum that believes the companies that cause mass layoffs by offshoring should be footing the bill, not taxpayers.
"Why should the people who run these companies be allowed to maximize their profits by firing staff, and expect taxpayers to take care of the fired workers through whose labor these companies and their shareholders became rich?" she asks.
"If more tax dollars are necessarily going to be diverted to health-care and social security rather than to education and government incentives to create jobs," says Greta, "then the social implication of these mass layoffs has the potential to affect everybody."
"When people lose jobs to India or China, morale isn't high among those who retain their jobs," explains Greta. "Some worked shorter hours and took home less pay. Others accepted a pay cut and worked longer hours. A lot more took mandatory unpaid holidays. But the global corporation chiefs and their government stooges were riding it high!"
"I don't know anybody who feels rich any more," says Greta, "and I don't know anyone who feels secure in their jobs any more."
"If governments are going to divert funds or increase taxes to help pay for the health-care and social security of masses of unemployed and depressed people in the new global economy -- while allowing the corporate cowboys to get fatter and richer -- then something is very, very wrong with the way this country is governed and it needs to be put right."
"Globalization may bring the world together as one big happy family, though I doubt it," says Greta, "because when the big players get too greedy the domino effect on the rest of the world -- and on ordinary people everywhere -- is disastrous."
"Mostly, we left behind slave labor, soup kitchens and workhouses for the poor when we entered the 20th century," says Greta. "If global corporate greed is going to cause the welfare systems around the world to crash again and again, then God help all of us."
"When people are hungry and desperate they break the law and get put in jail," says Greta. "The people who really need to be put in jail are the filthy rich and their stooges in the government who are causing all this misery ."
"Not all countries," she says, "have a safety net for its citizens. Families are still expected to take care of their own in many places in the world. In this respect I consider myself very lucky. However, I have been a taxpayer all of my life and I object to being forced onto welfare when I am fit and able to work."
"Having and holding a job is often a health risk, but not having a job poses a far greater risk to our mental and physical health," says Greta. "Once the shock of job loss eased, the future looked very grim for those of us who no longer had a job. Some sunk into deep depression, some succumbed to illness due to stress lowering their immunity and some just decided to say ‘goodbye cruel world’."
Greta believes that the cost of taking care of increasing numbers of unemployed, underemployed and depressed people is going to overtax our already woeful health-care systems.
"The first thing most sensible unemployed people do," says Greta, "is cut back expenses. Yet, I found that it doesn't take long for a nest-egg to be depleted just by basic expenses such as rent and food."
"If more jobs go offshore and the economy crashes, can we afford to pay for the health-care and living expenses of another mass of laid-off workers on top of the welfare people we already help?" she asks. "Take it one step further, should we when there are corporate cowboys now living in the lap of luxury who caused these catastrophes?"
Greta is part of a grass-roots movement gaining momentum that believes the companies that cause mass layoffs by offshoring should be footing the bill, not taxpayers.
"Why should the people who run these companies be allowed to maximize their profits by firing staff, and expect taxpayers to take care of the fired workers through whose labor these companies and their shareholders became rich?" she asks.
"If more tax dollars are necessarily going to be diverted to health-care and social security rather than to education and government incentives to create jobs," says Greta, "then the social implication of these mass layoffs has the potential to affect everybody."
"When people lose jobs to India or China, morale isn't high among those who retain their jobs," explains Greta. "Some worked shorter hours and took home less pay. Others accepted a pay cut and worked longer hours. A lot more took mandatory unpaid holidays. But the global corporation chiefs and their government stooges were riding it high!"
"I don't know anybody who feels rich any more," says Greta, "and I don't know anyone who feels secure in their jobs any more."
"If governments are going to divert funds or increase taxes to help pay for the health-care and social security of masses of unemployed and depressed people in the new global economy -- while allowing the corporate cowboys to get fatter and richer -- then something is very, very wrong with the way this country is governed and it needs to be put right."
"Globalization may bring the world together as one big happy family, though I doubt it," says Greta, "because when the big players get too greedy the domino effect on the rest of the world -- and on ordinary people everywhere -- is disastrous."
"Mostly, we left behind slave labor, soup kitchens and workhouses for the poor when we entered the 20th century," says Greta. "If global corporate greed is going to cause the welfare systems around the world to crash again and again, then God help all of us."
"When people are hungry and desperate they break the law and get put in jail," says Greta. "The people who really need to be put in jail are the filthy rich and their stooges in the government who are causing all this misery ."
See also:
- global gnomes
- katholikos is Greek for global
- global corporation divide and rule
- start a global war, get rich
- globalization of the net
- disabled fear globalization
- global welfare heaven
- global financial disasters
- globalized money
- globalization promotes starvation
- globalized slavery
- global oil demand ends easy life
- a lower quality of life for all
- global horror stories
- global terrorism and scapegoats
- greedy grubby globalists
- global warmongering
- out of sight, out of mind
- a global chinese curse!
- globalized murder
- subprime winners and losers
- supporting the world is madness!
- the global war for oil
- going global on climate change
- the social costs of globalization
- an offshoring victim
- globalization and peanut wages
- globalization and cannon fodder
- the globalization buzz
- globalization creates refugees
- globalization threatens western civilization
Labels: globalization, job loss, lay offs, offshoring, social costs
<< Home