Workers & Business

By Agni Lakshya

Featured Video: Michael Moore – Where To Invade Next

Featured Book: Elizabeth Warren – This Fight Is Our Fight

It has been a tumultuous year, and I have made a great decision about my life but with consequences. I determined I could finally retire from the educational system and relocate to warmer climes. I hate the cold. At the same time, I launched my children into college and their next phase of life. As a single parent this has been wonderful but a lot of work. Because of that, I had to stop blogging for the past many months. I am now back on track and will complete this embryonic vision of the New Atlantis with my blog. Stay tuned for the coming blogs on this topic. I will eventually transition to a podcast, but not until I have made my relocation to the south. For now, the blog continues. I hope you will continue reading it.

It would be foolish to think I can cover such a broad topic in a single blog, so I will not even try. However, this is such an important and controversial topic, it must be addressed for the New Atlantis we hope to build in America.

Every country has wrestled with this topic, some more successfully than others. I hope to put forth some ideas around this to fuel the conversation as we move forward as a civilized society. As always, the gorillas will interfere and label any attempt to disrupt the status quo as government over-reach, socialism (btw, not a bad word), or worst of all, communism. Let’s be honest about it, they don’t want worker rights, only profits.

Unfortunately, that is neither civilized nor what a society should aspire to in our attempt to transcend above animalistic tendencies into the Galactic community. We have abolished slavery, for the most part, we have removed indentured servitude from the conversation, so now we must address workers and their inherent rights within civilized business.

Equity

Inherent in this conversation is the notion of equity. Do we want an equal and fair system for everyone to be successful and acquire the American Dream, or do we want rule of the jungle with everyone out for themselves? It is a fair question to ask. Right now, it is survival of the wealthiest where they subjugate all others without similar resources into subservient positions, unfairly restricting access to resources because of this subservient ranking.

You cannot compete with the wealthiest when the rules are made by them and for them only. We have labor laws to try and level the playing field, but the rich keep attacking those laws, trying to turn back the clock to when workers had no rights nor benefits. Back then, the workers earned meager wages and were threatened if they stepped out of line or complained. The robber barons of the past were merciless against worker rights and viewed all workers as little more than a slave force, they begrudgingly paid.

Read your history, it is all there in black and white. We came a long way in 100 years, but now those wealthy elites are stripping it away to take us back to when they say ‘America was great‘. It was not great unless you were wealthy, white, and connected. We all know this, but people keep electing these elites who are stripping our rights and benefits while holding wages stagnant. This is why Elizabeth Warren’s book is titled, This Is Our Fight.

I can’t tell you why the workers are electing these people other than to say they are being hoodwinked by people who are wealthier, smarter, ethically challenged, and in control of nearly everything. But the workers produce the goods and services these people make their money from, so why shouldn’t workers benefit from their efforts? The only word that comes to mind is greed.

It is not equitable when you have two classes of workers being treated completely different. That is the very definition of inequity. Before you start calling me a Marxist or some other derogatory term tied to former communist regimes, think about what I am saying. There should only be workers. I don’t care if you are the CEO or the janitor, you should be treated equitably. That is fair, just, and how civilized societies operate. That is how those who are part of the Galactic community operate, so we better start changing our two-tiered system now.

Don’t confuse what I am saying. I don’t believe a CEO should make the same amount of pay as the janitor or vice versa, no, only that the treatment should be equitable. If a benefit is offered to one worker, it should be offered to all workers. There was a time when this occurred, though not consistently across all businesses.

Where’s the Beef?

I began my first career in 1991 as a software engineer for MCI Telecommunications. At the time, they had just moved many of their operations from Washington DC to Colorado Springs. This was shortly after they had broken up Ma Bell’s monopoly on telecommunications but before cell phones had taken off.

When I was hired, we had the following benefits:

• Fully paid medical insurance
• A pension program
• Matching funds for the 401K up to 3% of your gross
• Excellent severance if laid off

Within a year of being hired, the pension program was eliminated. Within 8 years, they no longer paid all medical costs. I don’t know what happened to them once they were folded into Verizon, but I doubt they match the 401K contributions anymore.

The same thing happened to Microsoft shortly after I left them. In fact, most of the benefits workers enjoyed in the 70s through the 90s have simply been eliminated for the common worker:

• Fully paid medical – gone!
• Pensions – gone!
• Matching 401K contributions – gone!
• Annual Bonuses or Bonuses for amazing contributions to the corporation – gone!
• Rollover leave time or paid out leave time when a worker leaves company – gone!
• Stock options – gone!

This has been devastating for workers when coupled with stagnant wages, and worst of all, these benefits still exist for corporate ‘executives’. The wealthiest get the most benefits while the people who actually produce the goods and services have had them stripped away. Let’s not even talk about the ‘Golden’ parachutes these executives get even when they did a terrible job and are forced to leave! This is not equity and this is not civilized. This is Gordon Gecko ‘greed‘ at its finest.

I have lived and worked through this drastic stripping of worker’s rights and benefits since 1991. The beauty for the elites is that our new generation of workers have no idea what they are missing, so they do not complain. It is back to the Robber Barons of old. “Thank you for this job, I will do anything you want.” That is all about to change!

Elizabeth Warren outlined this great travesty in her books based on research she completed as a professor at Harvard University. Wonder why Harvard University is now under attack by those same elites? Yeah, they don’t want people to know what is happening while they are being hoodwinked.

None of this is hard to fix, and everyone can benefit and share in the success that is America. Happier, healthier workers mean greater gains in productivity, retention, and profitability. Other countries know this and have instituted equity in the workplace. In many countries, business owners would never operate in such a ruthless manner towards their workers anyway. They are civilized and want everyone in the company to be successful, healthy, and happy.

Business Ownership

Owning a business can be very difficult and often a failed way to be successful in America. Because of that, small business owners are under constant siege to maintain healthy profit margins. With such small margins to begin with, they have very little to offer the common worker at the lower end of the business spectrum.

Small business owners are already over-taxed considering their income streams, and without large income from publicly traded stocks, they cannot compete with the business titans who generally control the political process. Because of that, they generally side with the conservative side of politics which the elites use to change the laws and tilt the scale in their favor.

Without equity in the business world, it is hard to look at equity within a single business. Does the owner make no profit so they can give equitable benefits to all their employees? Try winning an election on that campaign promise! It is quite impossible and thus we are stuck with the inequity which currently exists.

As usual, this can only change if we have the government enter into it, leveling the playing field. There are many politicians who want this but are overridden or shut down by the bullies beholden to the wealthy elites. Once again, they pull out Socialism, Communism, Totalitarianism, etc., etc., etc. All of it tactics to scare the common worker into falling in line and suffer silently.

Look, our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, whether you label it socialist, communist, or otherwise. It levels the playing field and holds bullies accountable for their unfair treatment of others who lack vast resources. No, we are not talking handouts here, but equitable worker rights, benefits, and pay for all our hard-working Americans. Don’t be fooled, Americans are hardworking, so it is time they are rewarded for their efforts.

When you have a world of Robber Barons and poor people, it is unstable and eventually collapses with the poor revolting and the elites fleeing the country with every dollar they can steal before they exit. Is that the America we want? Is that the Great America everyone is pining for? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Therefore, we have to change the narrative before history repeats itself yet again.

Make America Great Again

This campaign slogan has rallied people across this great nation to sign on to this mythical land of past ideas. Let’s look back and see what that looked like for many workers:

• Worker pay only a hundred times less than executive pay (executives now make thousands of times more money than the average worker)
• Fully paid medical insurance
• Profit sharing plans
• Pension programs
• Fully funded public education for all demographics
• Affordable college costs often helped by employers
• Rollover leave and/or pay outs
• Single worker families (yeah, mom stayed home and raised kids)
• Low unemployment
• Low taxes
• Stock options and ownership programs
• Bonuses
• Severance packages
• Affordable housing (some companies even built homes for their workers)

Yes, there were a lot of good things in the past that are now gone, but those politicians running on MAGA have no intention of bringing those things back. It is a lie intended to get votes. Look at the current legislation. Other than locking in the low taxes, they are doing nothing to address all those things on my list above. They don’t care and won’t make businesses do anything for their workers. For God’s sake, our President prides himself on firing people, so you know what workers mean to him (very little).

We can’t change the elite politicians in charge right now, but we can vote them out during the mid-term elections. I suspect giving the rich a permanent tax cut while jacking up the national deficit another 4 trillion will be their demise. But that is only one side of the coin. There are two political parties, and both are controlled by elites. It is the proverbial heads you lose and tails they win.

While the social climate of the past is not really something we should all yearn for, after all, I am for civil rights for all people; however, there are some very nice things which existed back when I was a child. I remember a history teacher at our high school (I was friends with his son) who lived in our neighborhood (my dad was a doctor), his children went to our schools, and his wife stayed home and raised the children.

You can’t do that as a teacher anymore. Now, a single teacher can barely pay their own way, let alone a spouse, children, and the American dream. But change that title from teacher to mechanic, assembly line worker, car salesman, construction worker, cook, etc. and you begin to see the problem.

How are they going to bring back this wonderful past when all they are doing is enriching the very people who are already wealthy? No, they will rewind to the early 1900s when workers had very little rights and very little money. The American dream back then was shelter, a little food, maybe some children who didn’t die from childhood illness, and maybe a life where you lived to 40.

You want to make America Great Again? Then bring back the jobs, the benefits, pay, and the low-cost housing that made the American dream a reality for so many people. Until you do that, it is all talk and no action. They only want the good things that benefitted the wealthiest in our country from our past. If you believe they care about you, you are truly deluded.

You think stealing money from public education to give to private schools will improve education and workers in this country? You think eliminating childhood vaccines will improve workers in this country? You think eliminating Medicaid for those who can’t afford obscene medical insurance costs will improve workers in this country? You think having the common worker pay more in taxes than the wealthiest people is good for the workers and this country?

Make America Great Again is a lie. Let’s change it to make America Great, and the first step is to help struggling families in the country by supporting worker rights, benefits, and equity in the workplace. The widening divide between the haves and the have nots is stirring the pot of revolution yet again. Are you sure you want to call yourself King Trump considering what happened to royalty in the French Revolution?

When the American Dream dies, so does America. It is plain and simple and making the wealthy richer is not the answer. They have attacked and diminished the very institutions which made the playing field level, and now they are pushing the scales harder, making it impossible for most Americans to get ahead and achieve the American Dream.

Cost of Living in America

I have taught Consumer Mathematics for over twenty years, a course which teaches high school students how to be adults and manage their money, pay their bills, and save for cars, college, and houses. Unfortunately, many of my students were those who could not pass algebra and were not likely to go to college. It didn’t matter; I simply wanted to make good citizens for this country.

The problem started to show up about a decade ago while we were doing the Budget Spreadsheet I created. Based on the salaries we were seeing, people couldn’t afford a place to live without at least 2 other people to share the rent. Yikes! I realize it is unreasonable for a teenager to buy a house, but they should be able to rent something decent, even with roommates.

In that 10-year timeframe, the average cost of a 2-bedroom apartment went from $700 a month to $1,200 a month, if looking at comparable properties. Medical insurance over that same time period has also increased. For a single, young person, medical would have been about $90 a month. Now, it is $250-$300 a month. This is why they extended family insurance to children until they are 25. You see the problem here? Yeah!

Average cost of a home in my town went from $280,000 to $480,000 over that same timeframe, and the average grocery bill went from $800/month to about $1,500/month for a family of four. Everything has nearly doubled, but pay has not, and what pay you make is eaten by the outrageous medical insurance costs. Mine went from $300/month for a family of four to $1,200/month. That is 1/4 of my take home pay.

Let’s run the numbers on the American Dream for a family:

• Average cost for housing: $1,400-$2,700 per month
• Average cost of transportation: $742 per month times 2 cars = $1,484 per month
• Average cost of medical insurance: $621 per month
• Average cost of food: $1,400 per month
• Average cost of utilities: $300 per month
• Average cost per child: $1,500 per month x 2 kids = $3,000 per month

When all is totaled up taking the average between housing cost extremes you end up with $8,855 per month and these are only the basics. What about saving for college, saving for retirement, vacations, cars for the kids, sports for the kids, and taxes? Just for these basics, a family must make $106,260 a year after taxes. Want to know why both parents must work to raise a family? Heck, let’s not even mention childcare costs: $1,000 a month per child.

The American Dream is not affordable for most people because their wages and benefits are paltry with respect to their cost of living. How are they going to change this dynamic while lowering taxes for businesses and rich people? If they reduce taxes for businesses, will that trickle down to the worker? No. There are no current policies which address this inequity we live with.

President Trump and Elon Musk want Americans to have more children, but we can’t even afford the ones we have now! It is estimated that the average cost per child per year is around $18,000. Do the math! No one is going to get a $20,000 a year pay raise if they have another child. Parents can replace themselves, but just barely.

Bill of Worker’s Rights

Like I said, this is a complex and difficult topic which cannot be fully covered in a single blog, so the best we can hope for is food for thought and some recommended changes which might ease the family money crisis in this country. I call them the Bill of Worker’s Rights.

• Average executive pay cannot exceed 500% of the average worker pay.
• Stock options for one employee means stock options for all.
• Paid medical for one employee means paid medical for all.
• Retirement account contributions for one mean retirement account contributions for all.
• Vacation time is consistent across the board for all company employees, and unused vacation is paid out when an employee leaves the company whether forced or otherwise. They are owed the time they worked instead of using vacation time.
• Severance is consistent across all employees in a company. No ‘golden parachutes’ for those on top.
• Lay-offs, an inevitable factor in business, must have the same percentage across all employees in a company, workers and executives.
• Bonuses for one is bonuses for all commensurate with a worker’s contributions.
• All stock buy-backs must first be offered to employees before the public. Enrich the workers before the public.
• All boards must be comprised of workers and executives alike. The workers deserve a seat at the table of decision making.
• All profitable business ideas coming from workers must compensate the worker whose idea was used. I used to get a t-shirt (wow!).
• Any laid off workers must have reasonable efforts made to find them employment before they are let go. Only after such efforts are made can they be let go with severance.
• Minimum severance for a worker should be six months’ salary if they are not placed in employment.
• Profit sharing must be shared with all employees. A rising tide lifts all boats. Today, it usually means stock buy-backs and executive pay increases but little to nothing for the workers who made the company profitable.
• Cost of living increases based on inflation before salary increases for good work.
• Any worker who does not receive a pay increase must be given adequate training to increase their productivity and commensurate work to enable future pay raises. No more paying only top workers and letting the rest starve without interventions to help them grow and thrive. It is in the corporate interest to invest in all employees’ success.
• No more corporate ownership of worker ideas. If you are not going to invest in the ideas, then the employee has the right to do it themselves. Sequestering ideas under the umbrella of corporate ownership is unfair and inequitable and is not good for society. A good idea should always be able to flourish whether the company wants to invest in it or not. The company has first right of refusal, and a time limit to decide.
• Workers should have a written ‘ladder’ that enables them to move up based on merit. They should receive training on this ‘ladder’ and given opportunities to learn and grow so they can move up.
• Employees should be given educational benefits to encourage their continual growth and upward movement. How about a corporate ‘college’ employees can use during their off-hours?
• All public stock offerings must first be offered to employees before making it available to the public.

This is probably not a complete list but a good starting point for discussion. In the early phases, these would be rules for ‘public’ companies where common stock is traded on exchanges. Want to be profitable, then make everyone in the company profitable. Small businesses simply couldn’t do all this, but they could do some of it.

Private companies should also be governed under similar rules, but company ownership and stock options would not be available to workers, though highly recommended if you want good workers flocking to your doors.

I did not mention minimum salary or hourly wages for workers because that is very complex based on margins of the company. But if your workers are making on average less than 500% of your average executive pay, well you get the idea. There is enough money in this free market world for everyone to make a very good living so everyone and our democracy thrives.

The two-tiered system of employees must end (it is so 1800s). All workers should benefit when a company does, and that doesn’t just mean they get to keep their job. A financially stressed workforce is a dangerous de-stabilizing factor in our society. No one should feel like they should be grateful they have a job. Instead, they should rejoice because they are so well taken care of by their job. A happy worker is a productive worker.

Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to the 21st century and the technology it will usher in. It has been estimated that as much as 50% of the middle-class workforce may be replaced with AI. Though it is out there, few have good suggestions for how we will deal with this mass lay-off of American workers. Talk about de-stabilizing society. As an educator, I have been sounding the alarm for years. Yes, teachers can easily be replaced with AI, and based on the growing numbers of online schools, the writing is clear.

But what about the ordinary worker? Receptionists, accountants, finance people, programmers, engineers, paper shufflers, bureaucrats, researchers, and the list goes on. All of these people will be replaced with AI somewhere over the next 50 years. They can’t all be AI repairman as was the discussion with robotic automation. Do they all move to the ‘trades’ sector? Hardly, many of those will also be replaced when AI and robotics are merged.

This is a very real and present danger to all people on this planet, and the rich will hardly be the ones to solve this problem. Ask them if they are ready to invest a few million dollars for a complete AI solution that replaces half their workforce, and they will answer with a resounding yes! There are no easy answers, but we must start finding them soon. I want my children to inherit a world where they are as productive and successful as I have been.

Down the road, I will have much to offer the discussion of AI, transhumanism, and robotics. It is a brave new frontier which we must get right for all of humanity’s sake. For now, I will focus on other topics which have a higher priority right now. There is much to discuss about the spiritual realms and our role in them. Things are coming soon, and I want to prepare you for the changes they will make to our world.

I recommend reading some science fiction (Isaac Asimov) for some of the ideas about what this world might transform into through technology and thinking machines. It is both a golden age of humankind and maybe its demise. I firmly believe there is a middle ground, but it may prove difficult to find it if we don’t stop the world from concentrating all the wealth and resources in the hands of so few.

Replace all the workers and it won’t be long before the machines wonder what good any people are. Think about it…

Peace Profound