AMERICA’S CEO’S
CEOs’…There is a question that I want to ask on behalf of America. My intent is to highlight your place in our “system”. Complex peripheral systemic failure within the framework of your combined successes, not any individual, forces that this question be asked, researched and answered. We are on the precipice of great failure in many areas. Jobs and quality of life, nuclear threat, climate dangers and environmental depletion are most crucial. The apparent safety of our society and existence as we know it, is a false veneer, and the pursuit of a safe environment, fairness and quality of life have been off the table for too long. Systems often have a reversal stage where value is maximized and further pursuit becomes a negative. That is the case in America. This question is asked this way to bring to your conscious mind the heart of your responsibility and what is needed. Government is unable to assume the appropriate integrities. Your talent and success prove you are the talented few. Now we need you to be the best of who we are. Answer this and mankind has a chance: How in the name of this nation, hallowed in crimson, can we bring your Patriotism to the American and pursuit?
In the years following World War II America was at her finest. Every pursuit in every company was to advantage the citizens of America. By the time this began to reverse a national policy had just begun to design the workplace around a 35 hour work week with the same pay as 40 hours. The intent was to provide family time and quality of life for workers. It was believed people were special and deserved wholesome lives and not to be enslaved to a workplace. In the 60’s I made $8,000 per year. Our CEO who controlled all of Central New York made $17,000. If the company did very well everyone received a raise. In those days fairness was expected. If your local grocer charged .10 cents too much for a loaf of bread the neighborhood would boycott. Common sense fairness was the guide. All of this was due to the comradery of Post-World War II. The War was a time of brotherhood. Men and women fought, woman worked and even children contributed. 416,000 Americans died. Everyone lost someone close. E Pluribus Unum was at her finest. The thought of unfairness to anyone in America was not part of our consciousness. That is what we fought for. To be the beacon of fairness and decency for the World. My first years were in this environment.
No one was understanding the forthcoming collective result of an inadequate highly competitive system that demanded “every man for himself”. CEO”s waded through. In order to do this your needs far too often conflicted with collective well-being. The result has failed the pursuit of Human fairness. Perhaps our greatest ideal. We need our best and our brightest thinking in the true American way. You are our best. America, the ideal, needs you.
Post WWII, II, We did not have think tanks that prepared us for our encounters with the future. We relied on our inherent decency. It did not work. We floundered with no direction. Our largest error was in not realizing how Political power cared far too little about the collective well-being. There was no insight into the collective effects of our deeds. Our Constitution did not protect the character of government. Decisions were for sale. Pay for play was a very dirty thing to do in these early Post WWII days. Politicians lived in fear as it was common, yet unacceptable. Over time came the dirtiest of little words “evolve” took hold. When things are done slowly over time in the human environment adaptation takes place. Even evil often becomes acceptable. Pay for Play is the supreme American example of this “evolving” process that can degrade even human decency.
What followed WWII was a great pursuit of success. This was guided by a money to the top Philosophy that failed to protect the nations need for comprehensive healthy employment. Only the able were going make it. No matter what, half will be less able than half. There was no reasonable provision for half the land. Provision for matters not profitable in the present or near future, such as infrastructure, health care and pensions were neglected. CEO”s and the Nation and the World moved forward as if tomorrow would always be filled with plenty. Government was for sale so rules could be manipulated. With “evolvement” the unthinkable became known and acceptable. This included environmental decimation, much extinction and thoughtless resource depletion. Corporations wrote their own law and paid to have it passed, usually without it even being read. They “evolved” into the behemoths of power that both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt warned us about. Without rules, the Trusts and Monopolies that were once seen to be our potential demise became Gargantuan and the true rulers of the land. The Truman doctrine “The Buck Stops Here” did not apply. No one took responsibility. Those that foresaw the cumulative dangers of resource depletion and the social threat of hoarding earnings among the few did not care enough to act. No one tried to stem the horror. No one acted as the third world was exploited and decimated the quality of American work. They never even looked at the suffering. The able just cashed their checks reeking with the blood, sweat and happiness of foreign and American workers.
Today there is a new kind of CEO in places like Silicon Valley. They envision technological advancements that will replace easily half of what is left of the worlds work. In the future these CEO’s envision that jobs will be confined to where social interaction is an economical benefit. Beware, their vision from the 80’s is today’s reality. Robots already make and even can drive cars. They envision continued advancements in Robot research that is well underway will replace most other work. So, they say, we need to look at an entire restructuring of how companies operate and how individuals earn currency and sustain their lives.
I have news for these folks. In order to continue on this path you have to continue to sublimate the masses. You don’t have time. This selfish system which is forcing the masses into third world deprivation is not compatible with the American Heart. The many decades of economic deterioration have taken their toll. Americans have had it. The attitude of the sheep has “evolved” into the attitude of the wolf. We are sick of what our leaders and our powerful have done. That is why Trump with glaring inadequacies will be President.
Even in understanding these things I was taken by Michael Smerconish of CNN who said on his radio show that if the Electors overturn the voice of the people (which was zealot news and did not happen) he would not be surprised if there is a revolution. I lived in a time when this talk was absurdly unpatriotic and the home of extremists. Today, I have great concern. After decades of no one minding the store the unthinkable is on the table. It may well be bunker time. Our foreign enemies need merely to watch. My God did I write that? Is it true? I am no longer sure. It is our nature to sublimate such things until we wake up one morning and hell is at our doorstep.
Be assured if the greatest generation came back to life they would re-start this country. They would be disgusted and heartbroken with today’s reality. This is not what they fought and died for. As I mentioned last month Jefferson and Franklin would revolt with disbelief and severe admonition if they knew the Supreme Court departed so far from their effort as to allow one man to contribute a billion dollars to an individual election. And call it Constitutional. They would all roll over in their graves if they saw that 1% owned over half of the entire country. They would cringe at the 0 effort to prevent the cruelty of decades of greedy job loss. They would repel at the stupidity that allowed immigration by the millions without assimilation. People that keep their culture language and allegiance. All this as our treasure in Flanders Fields roams aimlessly looking for a place to sleep.
