How to Choke a BusinessIn the interest of full disclosure (a phrase that often precedes a lie tinted with the merest shade of truth), I have a debit card. My wife made me get it when we got married, but I never use it, and she can't make me. Instead, I use a weekly money distribution system I call "on account." Every week, I get paid. I put some money in checking and some money in savings — the same amounts every week. Whatever is left, I fold once and stuff in my left front pants pocket. With that money, I buy gasoline, pipe tobacco, diner breakfasts, draft beer, coffee and maple-frosted doughnuts. When the money in my pants pocket is gone, I don't buy anything else (and here's where the system got its name) "on account" I don't have any more money. I learned the "on account" method from the poor people who surrounded me as a child, many of whom feared debt the way the tea party fears motel maids named "Concepcion." So, flop-eared simpleton that I am, I was happy to see that Bank of America, the hog-snouted bank of all banks, has decided to back off a $5 debit card fee. They did it because people were signing petitions, making noise and, worst of all, closing their accounts. We, the people (to swipe a phrase from the overheated) can make big corporations do things. Isn't that ... interesting? The barbed, bloody point of the matter is that business has us all buffaloed. The secret (I'm whispering) is that they need US. They need us to do the work, to make the paycheck, to take out the mortgage, to shop, to spend the paycheck.
The $19.2 million a year CEO of CrapFromChinaCo may indeed have his ass sunk in butter, but it's butter we churned — and he sits on thousands of us. We shift, he moves. We stand up, he falls. We don't buy, he doesn't get that second wife with the big silicone dividends. Why do you think corporations give million of dollars to your state rep, a guy/gal who is normally as invisible as a light breeze? Because he/she is WORTH buying. Because anything that keeps you in line is worth buying. The aforementioned state rep, chin greasy with contributions, is paid to tell you that big corporations create jobs and that, in return, they deserve tax breaks at your expense, deregulation at your expense and municipally constructed office parks at your expense. They deserve a union-free, no minimum wage, no pension, hire-a-bunch-of-illegals, forced overtime, no complaints, no Social Security, "business friendly" environment in which to employ you to produce goods and services you're expected to buy at any price they name. They cut your pay and tell you you're "lucky to have a job," and then they tell you to go out and spend to lift the economy out of the ditch. They tell you that because you are in charge of the economy, not the guy in the black Mercedes. Bank of America did not change its mind about the $5 fee. Bank of America ran away. No corporation can resist a boycott or a strike if either one is long enough, strong enough, loud enough and big enough. You know why you never hear that from either your state rep or your boss? Because they're afraid you'll believe it. To find out more about Marc Munroe Dion and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2011 BY CREATORS.COM 
|
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
