the soapbox

I never thought that I, of all people, would think socialism ever made sense.

I was always a fan of capitalism, right up until I was a victim of it. I’ve always felt the big corporation bosses had the right to do what they wanted to do. And, really, in a way, I feel they do have the right to do what they want since this is the system that’s in place for them, but it doesn’t make it right. They either don’t see or don’t care how it effects the workers, the ones doing the real work in the company – the ones not collecting fat checks to sit there and dictate how everyone else is supposed to work. I’m not saying company big wigs don’t have hard jobs, but, at the end of the day, who are the ones keeping the company running? That’s right. The little guy.

I never worked for a multi-million dollar business before 5 years ago. I had worked for small businesses, one of them being my family’s bakery, so I was ignorant to the workings of corporations. In my naiveté, I assumed all bosses valued their employees and knew that, as long as the workers were happy, business would run smoothly. This did hold true for my first three years at the company I work for now. While not a “large” corporation, it’s still a decent size. We had wonderful benefits and perks, great pay and a corporate staff that seemed to genuinely care. The only beef I had with the company was the illogical way they allowed us to use our sick time (you have to be out a week before sick pay kicks in) or the piddly amount of vacation time given (no vacation until you’ve been with the company a year, when you get a week… 2 weeks at three years… 3 weeks at 8 years…). Of course, the vacation time was just my inner greed. This is America, after all. We don’t get 6 weeks vacation like they do over in Europe. Besides, this is the country where we live to work, not work to live.

We had an awesome tuition reimbursement program, one of the main reasons why I took the job. Our 401K program was nice. We had nifty incentive programs, little competitions for prizes. The small things mattered too, like a nice birthday card in the mail, congratulatory letters upon the birth of a child and a marriage. Did I mention that the pay was great?

Last year, amidst all of the gloom and doom on the news about the economy, my manager held an office meeting to let us know that our pay was getting cut, the tuition reimbursement program was closed down and that 401K contributions were cut off. A week after our pay was cut, my office alone had three people laid off. The other 79 offices had at least 3 employees laid off. One office had their entire office crew laid off. A week after they lay everyone off, we find out that the company decided to outsource their jobs to some people over in Indonesia.

That, my friends, was the precise moment I finally understood why labor unions exist, and why socialism makes sense.

I was angry. Viciously angry. They tell all of us that they’re cutting pay because the company is having financial difficulties. Understandable. The next week, we find out they’re laying people off. The funny (not “haha” funny) part of the whole thing is that no one in corporate realized that the little people, like myself, had access to the company totals, so we all saw that the company was having, and still does have, an average revenue over $25 million a month. Morale is at an all-time low. Everyone is doing the work of two (sometimes three, as in my case) people and getting paid less for it. It’s a mess. And the outsourcing? That wasn’t something decided on overnight.

Through all of the economic hardships this company supposedly had to endure, they never once stopped getting the nice ink pens to hand out to the customers. (You know those nice pens the pharmaceutical companies give to doctors? That’s what our sales people get to hand out.) Having laid off over 300 employees and cutting everyone’s pay because they were “hurting,” they never stopped sending out the monthly company magazine, complete with thick, glossy paper that is mailed to the homes of every employee. To further enrage me, the first mug you see when you open the cover is that of the CEO. This is the same CEO who’s grandfather started this company from the ground up. This is the same CEO who’s father genuinely loved his employees and would always answer your phone calls, and make the trip to visit the company’s offices at least once a year and, no matter how tough things got, would never resort to pay cuts or massive layoffs. This is the same CEO who’s 17-year-old daughter has her very own private pilot at her beck and call in the event she ever wants to take the company plane somewhere.

The company can sent out their magazines (that people rarely read) complete with the motivational letters from the CEO inside, but they can’t afford to pay their employees.

Corporate greed at it’s finest.

Now I know a lot of you are completely baffled right now. How in the world have I, Miss Libertarian, decided that socialism maybe isn’t all that bad?

First of all, I am not in agreement with the Marx/Lenin/Stalin brand of authoritarian socialism.

Secondly, I’m not saying that I’m completely convinced that socialism, in whatever form, is the answer. I’m still trying to further educate myself on the matter. I have a lot of questions that I need answers to.

The Libertarian in me has always teetered on the edge of that line between minarchism and anarchism. I won’t say that I was brainwashed, but I have always seen government as sort of a “necessary evil,” because I never really considered it be a completely bad thing. I saw it as something that was needed to keep order, and provide the things that it was intended to provide for in the Constitution, and to protect our lives, liberty and property. But when I’d have my moments, kind of like the one I’m having now, there was this nagging thought inside of me that always wanted to know why.

Why do we need government? As Libertarians, we’re always talking about a non-intrusive government, how we want the government to leave us to do what we want to do – you know, personal responsibility. So if we want this personal responsibility, why do we even need a government in the first place? What is the government’s purpose if not to dictate to us, no matter how much or how little, what we are supposed to do? As a Libertarian, I want complete freedom from dictation. So why am I okay with someone controlling me on any level? Why am I okay with authority in the form of upper management? Doesn’t power in the hands of a select few who “own the means of production” essentially cause those who do the producing to have less freedom? Aren’t the companies we work so hard for are the ones who are reaping the benefits of our labor while we’re getting paid minimally?

In the words of Noam Chomsky:

Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be established at every level; there’s a little bargaining, a little give and take, but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward.

But doesn’t saying that there should be no big corporate authority at the helm of companies give us even more governmental mandates? History has proven time and time again that people don’t always just do what’s “right” without having to be forced to by some higher authority. People are inherently greedy.

Am I a Libertarian by the United States’ political definition? Am I a Libertarian by the philosophical definition? This is where my inner battle lies, although I wouldn’t call it so much a battle as I would call it an enlightening moment. Have I been being hypocritical all of these years by declaring myself to be a Libertarian or have I just been shielded (by my own doing) from what I really believe? Have I just never wanted to fully accept the fact that I am, indeed, a blatant anarchist because I didn’t want to be looked at as if I were one of those stereotypical, firebomb-throwing anarchists that choose violence as an answer protest against groups, such as the WTO and IMF? Or is it that, perhaps, like just about everyone else in this country, I have been letting my guard down for the past few years and letting my true political colors shine through?

Maybe it’s just that I finally got a taste of my own medicine and realized that it was extremely bitter and hard to swallow. Maybe everything has just piled up and caused me to finally blow. Seeing kids getting killed by police for no reason at all, people getting arrested for no reason other than annoying a federal official, wars being fought in my name when I didn’t ask for it, and an obscene amount of mandates trickling down from the government hierarchy just about sealed the deal for me.

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