It’s NOT Just Business
Quick history lesson: In America, the working people fought companies for living wages and safe and equitable working conditions. The tragic 1911 Shirtwaist Factory fire, in NY, drew attention to poor working conditions in America.
The workers united and formed unions. Companies hated unions and crafted their own “unions” (lobbyists) to advocate for them in the halls of Congress.
Companies & their lobbyists fight the worker unions. They knock on the doors (and wrote checks) to politicians & their campaigns. The money inspires who enacted laws that preserves/increases company profits. Money is their motivation.
Seeking more profit and less regulations, many companies became multi-national corporations, which operate in countries where worker rights don’t matter much and “living wages” are a fraction of America’s minimum wage. Profits and less regulations from politicians are keeping corporations happy. Good prices keep consumers happy — rarely do many of us wonder about who’s backs those cheaper prices are built upon — until now. Oregon-based, Nike & other global corporations should be held accountable for fair labor practices for anything they sell here — or anywhere, for that matter. But, multi-national companies make much overseas to meet consumer demand AND, most importantly to them, shareholder needs. Consumers must be the moral authority. Boycotts matter.
When people call attention to employee abuses, corporations won’t change until we demand they do so. Many really don’t care — but, do you?
In January, the trump administration signed a major, “first step” trade agreement with China — trump likes signing his name to stuff and shaking hands in front of cameras. The virus was already a growing concern in China a month before trumps’ photo opp.
The timing of the trade deal signing, followed by the announcement of a virus sweeping China, is suspicious. We have to wonder how long was the news stifled by the Chinese government. Then, we must question the attempts by the US government to suppress the emerging threat, here. Then, we learn that suppression IS in the White House plan.
Why weren’t we better prepared for a health crisis? Our “leader” and his friends only cares about relection. The abysmal reaction to this REAL national emergency (unlike the false emergency declared at our border by the president), affirms trumps absolute incompetence.
This administration has lied profusely to us. We should be suspicious about what has been said, and done, behind closed doors, by this impeached president & his loyalists. We’ve had pandemics before. We’ve NOT had a more incompetent president, though. This administration & majority GOP senate has boldly lied to our faces, colluded to suppress facts & has done nothing to really defend democracy? But, I digress.
Our stock market is in danger and that is what the president and friends care about. The “stimulus plan” is full of more holes than a sieve. If there were these billions of dollars available BEFORE COVID-19, where was the investment before?
Never mind that the majority of Americans aren’t financially prepared for an emergency. The stock market in crisis is more reflective of the real state of the union. Our indifference about other nations should have always been our concern. That’s what world leaders “Under God” would do. American politicians, declare America first and boast of being a just nation, but fail to ask about worker rights with their trade partners? Lest we forget, there is no federal rush to defend people of color when injustice occurs here or abroad. Nope. Not at all.
Of course America will turn a blind eye to discriminatory practices, like labor camps in other countries — even our trade “partner”, China. We still allow the new Jim Crow to nest here. We must work to be best at home and condemn the worst abroad, if we really want to be a world leader. A REAL America would fight for people who are marginalized by race, gender or religion. Who would have thought that the trade deal would include a virus that would make those fictional virus movies a reality? Dean Koontz, maybe? Sounds close to me.
Karma doesn’t play.
There’s a resurgence of discrimination here, and elsewhere. It starts at the top. It began before COVID-19. Like the virus, it’s not a hoax and it’s a global pandemic. Does it matter to you? What do you value more — good shopping deals (courtesy of low-wage workers & inhumane working conditions) or fair, human rights? Where does your candidate stand on liberty and justice for all? Shouldn’t you want to know?
