🚀 go-pugleaf

I originally posted this about a week ago, but the article mailer here
kept barfing (I had about 4 different articles in different groups belched
back in my face)

In article <1993Feb12.002508.47292@r-node.pci.on.ca> ndallen@r-node.pci.on.ca (Nigel Allen) writes:
>Organizers in the Job Is A Right Campaign in New Orleans have 
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>called a Feb. 4 meeting to form an emergency committee to oppose 
>the Sears closings. The group has called upon President Bill 
>Clinton and Congress to use emergency powers to stop any new mass
>layoffs and reverse the job losses of recent years.

Not as far as the capitalist basis of our society is concerned.  The whole
point of our free market system is that you ARE allowed to try to maximize
your profits.  This means firing people who don't do their jobs, closing
stores which aren't making money (and laying off those people), etc.  There
is NO valid justification for forcing someone, even a corporation, to
take a loss (or risk doing so) in an area just because you feel the people
who work there deserve something.

I don't like people losing their jobs any more than anyone else does.  But
when you go to work for someone, you agree to do the job they ask, and they
agree to pay you for it.  Neither of you is doing anything out of the goodness
of your heart.  They pay you because they need work done.  You work because 
you need money.  Neither of you has any great responsibility beyond that.

>After laying off 48,000 workers in 1991, on Jan. 26 Sears 
>announced a new round of 50,000 layoffs nationally. With that 
>announcement, Sears management said it would close its store in 
>The Plaza in Lake Forest within 90 days. Other stores in Baker, 
>Gonzales and La Place will also close. Some 300 jobs will be 
>eliminated locally. 

Yes, and do you know WHY Sears is closing many of it's stores?  For the
same reason that Bamburgers went out of business and was bought out by
Macy's.  For the same reason Macy's is now considering going out of 
business:  They are losing money.  People just aren't patronizing the big
stores anymore like they used to.  Is it because of the economy?  Probably
in part.  Are there other reasons?  Quite probably.

But the fact is, if you force Sears to keep these stores open, you might
be sealing the last nail into the coffin for the Sears, Robuck corp, which
would ultimately mean a lot MORE people losing their jobs.  Would you put
hundreds of thousands out of work to save 10,000 now?

>The specific demands of the Job Is A Right Campaign are:
>
>* President Clinton issue an executive order barring corporations
>such as Sears from putting massive layoffs and plant closings 
>into effect.

Good.  So we'll force them to lose money, and then wonder why things get
worse when instead of closing a FEW stores, they totally fold.

>* An emergency session of Congress be called to make concrete 
>plans to rehire and absorb into the economy all workers fired and
>laid off.

Doing what?  Or do you just want to pay them and THEN worry about what
we pay them for.  Do you LIKE paying taxes?  Because "absorbing into
the economy" when mandated by the government means the government ends up
doing the hiring.  And when that happens, guess who ultimately pays the
salaries?

>* Clinton order a moratorium on layoffs and plant closings for 
>all Fortune 500 companies.

All that means is that it will be harder for people to GET jobs in these
companies in the first place.

I have two scenarios for you to consider:  First of all, if the company has
some added responsibility to it's workers to maintain their positions, then
contrarily, the worker should have some responsibility to the company.  So
if you want to enact this legislation, how about we turn around and ALSO make
it illegal to quit your job.  After all, if you are quitting to go on to a
better paying (or otherwise better) job, you are obviously motivated by greed
for higher profits at the expense of the company who gave you a home and 
perhaps gave you the experience you lacked before so you COULD get this new
job.

Second scenario:  What if you hired a nanny.  You pay him/her for years,
and then finally your child grows to the point that it will be in school
during the day.  You no longer need the nanny.  So what if someone came to
you and said "Nope, sorry.  We can't have you adding to unemployment.  You
can't terminate your Nanny's service.  What?  It's no longer "profitable"
to you to have her?  Too bad."  Note that the profit in this case is the
fact that your child was being taken care of.  So, how would YOU like it
if someone refused to let you get out of a no-longer profitable venture?

>The campaign can be reached at P.O. Box 56812, New Orleans, La. 
>70156; phone (504) 364-5907.

And I strongly urge everyone to call or write and tell them JUST how 
assinine all of this is.  Assuming this is a legitimate group.

>CAMPAIGN TO STOP SEARS LAYOFFS IN DC
>
>By Mary Owen
>Washington
>
>"The Sears layoffs and store closings are motivated by greed," 
>says the D.C. A Job Is A Right petition. "They're calculated to 
>maintain the highest profit margin for the owners and top 
>managers of Sears, while ignoring the years of sacrifice by Sears
>workers who they are now about to throw out of work."

And has it ever occurred to these people that the whole PHILOSOPHY
of this country (ie capitalism) is based on greed?  It is based on the
right of every person to do whatever they can to maximize their own
profit.  We narrowly escaped "Life, Liberty and Property" instead of
"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".  Yes, that was the original
wording.

Some things should not be allowed in pursuit of profit.  These include
blatantly cheating people (such as making promises regarding your product
which are not true and which you have no intent to keep), endangering
others (such as not responsibly disposing of the waste products of your
manufacturing process), etc.  But it runs entirely contrary to our entire
theory of freedom to dictate to anyone where they may or may not open
(or close) a store, and who they may or may not hire/fire.  (With the
exception of cases of illegal bias).

>The D.C. Sears is also the last moderately priced department 
>store available to city residents who depend on public 
>transportation. It is located near a Metro stop and within the 
>city fare zone.

Right.  It's the last one.  Implying it was not always the only one.  The
rest have all closed their doors because (perhaps) the area simply is not
profitable anymore.  So now, because Sears tried to hang in there the
longest, it should be penalized?

>"Youth unemployment in our city has reached double-digit figures.
>Adult unemployment is also high," says the petition. "The closing
>of Sears and the permanent termination of the workers at this 
>store will only worsen an already horrible crisis."

This is regrettable.  But the fact remains, we can't and shouldn't try
to force anyone (human or corporation owned by humans) to lose money on
a profitless venture.

>* No layoffs, no store closing.

Good.  So Sears continues to lose money and follows so many other big
chains recently into bankrupcy.  At which time they no longer can afford
to pay ANY of their workers ANYWHERE.  But hey, at least we kept them 
from laying off a few people and closing a non-profitable store, right?

>* D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly and D.C. Congressional Delegate 
>Eleanor Holmes Norton use their powers such as eminent domain to 
>protect the people of Washington by banning the closing of this 
>Sears, Roebuck store.

You can't ban a closing.  If the local store isn't making enough money 
to pay it's costs, the only reason the people there are still GETTING paychecks
is that Sears is siphoning profits off of the other stores to pay for this
one.  If this particular Sears store were the only one in existance, a negative
cash flow would negate any ability to pay ANY wages.

>* President Clinton issue an executive order declaring an 
>economic emergency and prohibiting Sears and other corporations 
>like GM, IBM and Kodak from closing stores, plants and work 
>places and laying off workers.

Until Sears, GM, IBM and Kodak all go Chapter 11 due to all the excess
fat they were not allowed to trim.

This is great.  Our country is way in debt because they DON'T trim fat where
it should be trimmed, and now you want to extend this stupidity to the 
corporate world, where instead of going into trillions of dollars of debt,
the companies simply are forced to go out of business.

>For information, contact MPA Job Is A Right Campaign, 1470 Irving
>Street, NW, Washington, D.C., (202) 332-5041.

Again, call an tell them JUST how stupid and assinine they are being.

Will.
-- 
Copyright (C) 1993 by William Johnson  All rights wronged, all lefts made
adric@access.digex.com                     without benefit of turn signal.
Will Johnson, 307 S. Reynolds St Box P-216, Alexandria, VA  22304
"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have included a quote in your .sig file."