Overworked America: The Great Speedup »
Assuming you all earn the same rate: If your department is 6 people, and then 5 get laid off, then your pay could be tripled and the company would see a cost savings of 50%.
oh that would be too logical.
In reality, you stay at the same salary and are coerced into increasing your productivity by 500%.
Webster’s defines speedup as “an employer’s demand for accelerated output without increased pay,” and it used to be a household word. Bosses would speed up the line to fill a big order,to goose profits, or to punish a restive workforce. Workers recognized it, unions (remember those?) watched for and negotiated over it—and, if necessary, walked out over it.
But now we no longer even acknowledge it—not in blue-collar work, not in white-collar or pink-collar work, not in economics texts, and certainly not in the media (except when journalists gripe about the staff-compacted-job-expanded newsroom). Now the word we use is “productivity,” a term insidious in both its usage and creep. The not-so-subtle implication is always: Don’t you want to be a productive member of society? Pundits across the political spectrum revel in the fact that US productivity (a.k.a. economic output per hour worked) consistently leads the world. Yes, year after year, Americans wring even more valueout of each minute on the job than we did the year before. U-S-A! U-S-A!
Except what’s good for American business isn’t necessarily good for Americans. We’re not just working smarter, but harder. And harder. And harder, to the point where the driver is no longer American industriousness, but something much more predatory.
(Source: sp-a-m)
Just to clarify what “Europe” actually is ;)
Please follow the link to the source for a description.
via chaiitii
(via venndiagrams)
A new report from the Political Economy Research Institute says that bike and pedestrian projects create 11 to 14 jobs per million dollars spent, while road construction only creates 7 per million.”
— Bike Projects Create More Jobs Than Road Projects | Planetizen (via jxnblk)
(via jxnblk)
Is Google a Monopoly?
Stealing $15,000 through overcharging cab drivers gets you prosecuted, but stealing millions defrauding subprime borrowers gets you a bonus.”
— Comment on NYT CityRoom blog article about NYC taxi drivers arrested in overcharging scam
