Isn’t Crushing a Person’s Spirit as Bad as Taking His Life?

[The Whiskey Priest]

With the news of Ford’s workforce reduction plan we are once again faced with the reality of economic forces crushing the spirit of the working class. Because of bad management 30,000 or more of the working class are now faced with economic certainty of hard times.

So it goes, for over the four decades the American working class has been decimated by the economic forces arrayed against them. As the global free-traders send wages off pell-mell in a race to the bottom the working class is being drained of its dream of a better life. In concert with a class of politicians who are selling the government to the highest bidder, who turns out to be those who own the means of production, the corporations are heaping more and more adverse economic weight upon the working class.

As the neo-cons raise the specter of enemies lurking in the shadow, the real danger of diminishing the hope and spirit of an entire generation of working people is real in every daily headline.

[Democrats_win]

1. They´re crushing people because of greed. That´s pretty bad.

[tigereye]

2. you know what is odd though

I never see anyone mention that these things ( well, I suppose the greed and desire not to go out of business totally, of American as well as European corporations,) benefit the working class in other parts of the world... as unfortunate as they are for people here. But then again, they bailed on Mexico as soon as Mexican workers' standard of living began to rise.... hmmmm.

I wish I knew what the answer was.

[MnFats]

3. yes, and now for the plants that remain open...

...Ford will blackmail all levels of govt. for tax breaks and a bajillion little 'incentives' to keep them open.
or, as a local history prof stated, we're seeing the race among cities to see which ones can treat their residents worse.

the upshot is a greater tax burden for the rest of us as well as the dispiriting circumstances you mention.

[baby_mouse]

4. It's worse. nt.

[Lorien]

5. It certainly can be

living without an ability to contribute to society in any way can lead to a sense of hopelessness that can indeed crush one's spirit, and make what's left of one's life almost unbearable. It's going to be extremely difficult for the older workers in particular; modern corporations are extremely ageist, and they barely have employment enough for the young. The best bet for those that are laid off is to start their own businesses, and that's a very difficult thing in this BushCo economy.

[Bluzmann57]

6. I have been a victim of "downsizing"

That is a word I have grown to despise by the way. But on to an answer to your post. As one who has been there, done that, it is disspiriting. Emotions run the gamut, from fear to depression to hope. In my case, I was offered some schooling paid for by the state and I took advantage of it. Many options such as that are now gone, and I imagine that a lot of these people are in their early late forties/early fifties and will find it hard to start over, due to age and education. I mean, many of these workers probably have 25-30 years in and know nothing else. Some will probably take a retirement package, some may not be able to afford to and may be forced to take any low paying job that comes along. Yes, their spirits are undoubtedly crushed, but no, it is still not as bad as taking one's life, even though it may seem that way at first. It is shameful that 30,000 people are going to lose their good paying jobs though and I have always said that management should be held accountable as they are the ones who make the ultimate decisions about manufacturing and inventory, etc. But alas, it will never happen that way. The workers always get the short end.

[politicaholic]

7. His problem is with America, not production persay...

He made it fully apparent that the North American facilities are the problem. The foreign facilites have no problems. The people who are buying his cars are the problem. You're the problem. We're the problem.

[YOY]

8. One's spirit can be renewed...but not one's life

n/t

[DanCa]

9. I don't know who this quote is by.....

"A man's life can be taken but once, however, his spirit can be broken many times." I dont know who said it but I think it applies to your thread.

[undergroundpanther]

10. it's worse than taking his life.

My spirit has been crushed by bullies by this "system" by control freaks abusers of power,abusers of trust,abusers of spirit.

It has happened so much in my life I find myself wanting the world to end,just so all the sociopaths rapists,racists,misogynists,haters and control freaks die off.I hate abusers of power. I hate rapists pedophiles tortures and sociopaths.I hate manipulators and people who want to win at any cost.I hate those to take advantage and call it"opportunity"

I hate all those bullying people who are in a destructive kind of personality spectrum that makes them aggressive, dominant,controlling narcissistic ,manipulating con men,liars,autocratic assholes,authoritarians,entitled privileged parasites,all the ugly abusers of spirit,of humanity's weaknesses and the selfish con men exploiters of others strengths, mind ,trust and creativity..

[Syncronaut Seven]

12. Hi UP! Where's your cool sig pic?

I had to read your post twice, thought I wrote it. ;)

[undergroundpanther]

17. I got a notice from DU saying it was too big

Than my computer went kaput I had to get it fixed.Now I gotta go into photo shop and resize it.I don't understand how it was using bandwidth for I linked to it from another site that stores my pictures so it could all be a load of crap to get the sig line off line. I dunno.
Anyways I find it strange that some yahoo I never heard of before claiming I was infringing on his "friends"copyright with my design. I told him I had gotten the panther head from a icon site that has been online for years and be aware there is only so many ways to draw a puma head looking down ,there is no "unique" way to do it.So it's basically public domain. The alleged design he said I stole wasn't a horned puma on a pentagram in rainbow colors. It was some spots logo I never saw until he linked me to it,and it was totally different.I think he was full of it and I also think he may have a buddy at the admin of DU. Just wondering,because I find it uncanny soon after this yahoo complains to me and I tell him what I think and that he has no grounds, I get a "note" telling me to resize the image in my sig line. Coinkidink?
That is why my panther isn't up yet,other than sig lines are off right now due to traffic levels.That happens on DU sometimes.

Believe me it will be back up here, pretty soon although maybe smaller,because I know the bullshit control freaks do and they can kiss my furry ass too. I will not be curbed in my expression by a trifling game of greed.My panther sig symbol is my personal symbol. I have been using for over ten years.I have painted it on my leather vest, It's on various personal things and it is on a canvas that hangs over my altar.And that design will never be sold because it was a spiritual gift given to me from the copper scaled wonder,The underground/water panther .He's one of the biggest, toughest manitous there is, the flying panther-snake Mishi Bizi.Mishi Bizi is in charge of all things underwater and underground, and sometimes he has horns, copper scales, and a tail of copper that is on fire.Other times he is the color of the sky and you know he is there by his flaming tail which has been called a comet.

In a dream I had when I was a kid Mishi-Bizi came to me,and "adopted" me so to speak,he was so beautiful, fur crackling with rainbow lightning,and beams of light like a star shone from his head and he had huge rainbow feathered iridescent wings. and his tail was long shimmering with ever color changing fire..He shot spirit lightning looked like holograms of countless faces of beings and felines in a river of light, from his eyes,right through me..from above and from below in two forms,same cat. He is my higher self/guide/gnosis.

So I feel I can claim the sig design as Mishi Bizi's gift to me. It is sacred and a gift from beyond so selling it for profit would be disrespectful. But displaying it is not. So,Anyone else attempting to claim that design and my gifted name, Underground Panther in the Sky as theirs will have to deal with Mishi-Bizi,and Sekhmet..

So I don't worry myself too much about it.Things happen it's uncanny. Oh well...
All I can say is don't fuck off and be a shithead with spirits and forces you don't understand.

[Cleita]

11. Yes, it is. The big difference is that as long as you are alive

there's always the hope that things will get better. Once your life is taken, there is no resurrection I'm afraid.

[pitohui]

13. no of course it isn't don't be silly

if my spirit is crushed, it can slowly uncrush again, like a plant smashed down by frost until it is nothing but an old dried-out root in the mud, yet in spring it comes back and there is a flower

if i am dead, it's game over

i am sorry abt the ford lay-offs, but i don't think laying off people w. a hopefully generous settlement plan is quite on the same level as taking them out and shooting them

i live in a katrina area, i see people around me every day who have lost EVERYTHING financially, jobs, houses, every tiny possession down their smallest photograph, believe me, they are not sitting on their hands thinking they'd be better off dead, they're looking toward the future and trying to figure out how to get it back!

and this is what we need to do in the larger world too, already we're seeing better pay here, because suddenly a whole bunch of non-outsourceable jobs have been created in construction etc.

we need to figure out how to do this in other areas, w.out having the catastrophe first

for instance, why not a plan similar to the 1930s where we put people to work on repairing america's infrastructure, this would create jobs, many skilled and non-outsourceable

let's think positive

i read earlier that kucinich is suggesting such a plan, let's have a look at it, and be supportive of such suggestions, get them out in the public eye

if we have nothing to contribute but our negativity, we're not helping anything

[The Whiskey Priest]

14. I dont think that it is negative to lead the people to realize

that there are worse things than dying. Living a life in chains is much, much worse. Better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.

[pitohui]

15. whatever

you really think losing a job is the same as living a life in chains?

like i said, i have people around me who have lost EVERYTHING, i'm glad they have a better attitude abt it or we'd have people jumping off what's left of our bridges and creating a traffic hazard all over the place

it ain't over till it's over and losing a job -- esp. being laid-off for something not your fault and your next employer KNOWS it's a mass lay-off and not your fault -- is WAY different than being dead

you did ask, i answered

peace

[Imagevision]

16. Ford cans 30,000 redducing payrate 10% of those remaining?