Corporatism puts us all in the poorhouse

I’ve been a supporter of the Occupation Wall Street movement since its inception a few short weeks ago.

I’ve been to my local Occupy movement, stood on the sidewalk holding my sign, and have tried to educate people about what the movement is about.

While standing out on the sidewalk, more than a few people drove by yelling, “Get a job!” while being completely ignorant of the fact that almost everyone there does have a job!

I’ve posted on more than enough forums, where the ignorance from the naysayers is almost too much to bear. Aside from the “Get a job!” gang, there are also those who demand that we’re hypocrites because we have items that were bought from corporations.

Here’s where their logic fails: where else are you supposed to buy your stuff from, if not the corporations?

Let me try to explain something to the ignorant masses, to help them understand what corporatism is all about.

You want to support local business, so you get a job working for a local hardware store. Things are going great, you’re making a decent wage – enough to support your family while working 40 hours a week. You have time to spend with your family, even taking the occasional vacation.

Then a giant corporation moves in a few miles down the road. They sell the same products you sell, but they sell it for 50% cheaper, because they have the financial backing to do so, and they get their products from China.

In order for your boss to keep you on as an employee, he must cut your pay or your hours, because he can’t reduce the cost of his products. You agree to a pay cut. Now you’re working for less money, so you go out and find a part-time job to make up for the loss. You go to work for a locally owned convenience store. You’re working 60 hours a week. You’re stressed out because you don’t have enough down time to spend with your family. And forget vacations, you can’t afford that any more.

Then a large corporate chain convenience store opens across the street. It puts your local store out of business. So you look for more work. You decide on the neighborhood pizza joint. You deliver pizza for them.

Eventually, the giant corporation puts the local hardware store out of business. Now you have only your wages from the pizza shop to rely on.  You have to have more income to support your family, but all the local places are being put out of business. Where do you go to work?

As sick as it makes you, you decide to go work for the giant corporation that put your hardware store out of business. They pay half of what your wage was at the hardware store (because they charge half as much). Now you’re working 60 hours a week and making half the money you used to make.

Having such a low income, you can’t afford to patronize the local stores that are left in your area, so you start shopping at the giant corporation.

Then, to make matters worse, a national corporate chain pizza place opens right next to the giant corporation that you work for. And they deliver, too!  The local pizza joint can’t compete with their prices, so they get rid of pizza delivery. They have no other job for you, so you are now back to only one job. And remember, that job pays half what you were making before.

You go out and look for work, but there’s nothing out there. Everyone else is in the same boat as you are, working 2 jobs just to make ends meet. Everyone is working for all these giant corporations, making half what they used to be able to make. You end up needing government assistance just to put food on the table.

Your relationships at home are taking a direct hit, as well. Finances are tight, tempers are flaring, and there is no relief in sight.

Then you read in the paper that all the giant companies in your area are making record profits. But how can that be? They tell you at work that they can’t afford to give you a yearly raise. When they lose an employee, they don’t hire another one to take their place, they just make you do both your job and theirs, claiming they can’t afford to hire anyone else. But they’re making record profits!

Where is all that money going? I’ll tell you where it’s going … to the CEOs of these giant corporations. Are they putting it back into the system? Nope! It’s being hoarded away, put in some bank, where it’s earning interest.

While the rest of us are barely hanging on financially.

These companies have no competition. This is NOT a free market. This is a monopoly by a few giant corporations. They can do whatever they want, price-wise, because there is nobody capable of selling products at a price that people can afford. The quality of the merchandise has declined to the point that whatever you buy now, will be broken in a year, and will need to be replaced. And where do you think you’ll be able to buy that replacement product?

CORPORATISM HAS KILLED OFF CAPITALISM!

If this is all ok with you, then by all means, keep driving by the Occupy protests while shouting your ignorance out the window. Keep ignoring what is happening. And when it finally hits YOUR home, you remember how you supported corporatism in the first place.

If this is NOT ok with you, then you are part of the 99%. Use part of your time off work to join us at your local protest.

Your house cleaning can wait.

Your future can’t.