Happy Birthday USA

I make a promise to work harder this coming year at being a better American.

-- Bill Seebeck

What's With All of This Age Discrimination? Whatever Happened to the Dignity of Labor?

by Bill Seebeck

When I first went looking for a full-time job, I was greeted with the usual statement, "You have no experience." Of course, I knew that, but my answer was then and I am sure it is today for all of those young people starting out,"How am I going to get experience if you don't give me a chance to see what I can do!" Give me a chance.

In today's world, it is money that is the value that counts. If a company can hire you or even two of you at less money than it is paying one older, more "seasoned" person, they will do it in a heartbeat. Then on top of it, they will let the older person go --- laid off, fired, whatever you want to call it. The British call it being "made redundant".

Today, I have a bundle full of friends, as I am sure my readers have as well, that have lost their jobs. They are baby boomers, older than 50. They have had very good careers, degrees, yes, including from Harvard and now they have been made redundant and the worst part, they can't seem able to get another job.

I find this amazing. Why? Because as my old partner Hunter Grant used to say, it is counter intuitive. I mean we educate people, then they gain very valuable experience and insight and then when they hit 45 plus, instead of benefiting from their experience, employers are looking to get rid of them.

Why? Is it because they have become flawed? Are they somehow diseased? Have they acquired too much knowledge? No. No. The reason that employers don't want them around anymore is because they cost too much, their salaries have increased over time and so have their benefit packages. It has nothing to do with knowledge and experience, it has all to do with MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY.

When the United States traded knowledge and experience for MONEY it fundamentally went the wrong way. What a surprise then that we are where we are right now as a nation, because chasing MONEY can lead to GREED and then you never, never have enough.

Yet another reason, other than MONEY, that these boomers can't get new jobs is because they are viewed as too OLD. Companies are constantly finding new ways to get around age discrimination laws. One popular way is online applications. These computerized resumes are then scanned by companies to create reports that can be ranked by "year college degree awarded". If you add 21 to the subtraction from the current year, generally that will give you the person's age (e.g. graduated 1971, therefore: 2009-1971=38+21=59).

How about the application question, "What is the salary or value of benefit package that would you accept for this position?" That question is asked without the company having provided the compensation range. The company attitude is, we don't have to tell you what the job pays, but you have to tell us what you will accept. This practice allows companies to rid themselves of lots of boomer resumes legally. Yes, there are lots of ways around in the age discrimination game. Is anyone with oversight looking into this?

So, is this a Seebeck Rant? You bet it is.

Another related subject should make me cry, but now I laugh when I hear our Congress people say in their absolute ignorance of reality, "You know Social Security costs are high, the same with other 'entitlement' programs, people will just have to work into their 70's". HAHAHA! or LOL! Mr./Ms. Congress Person, we know that we are going to have to work until we're in our 70's, because we have no money left.

The problem, Mr./Ms. Elected Official, is that after the age of 45, the employers are looking to rid themselves of us because it is easier to cut us to lower costs rather than to keep us boomers employed until we're 70 or 71 or 72. They would rather bring in a couple of 24 year olds, pay them very little and work them to the bone. So, who is going to hire us boomers when we are old? Dunkin Donuts? Wal-Mart? Fortunately, they do, but generally at minimum wage.

So, now here is where another term I dislike intensely usually pops up, "You should be glad you have a job".

No, I am NOT glad to have a job, especially when the employer takes away my health benefits, vacations, pensions and wants me to work six to seven days a week for not enough money to feed me or my family.

No, I'm not GLAD. You see EMPLOYER, it is my right as a citizen of this country to work and that means whenever and wherever I work to be able to work with DIGNITY. I'm sure there are companies out there that have never heard that word before or have forgotten, so let me say it again, DIGNITY.

The Oxford American Dictionary describes DIGNITY as "the state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect such as the dignity of labor."

In 1891, during the first Industrial Revolution, Pope Leo XIII wrote a major letter/statement (encyclical) entitled Rerum Novarum, which dealt with the dignity of the worker. If you haven't read this document before, it is worth the read because believe it or not, we face similar challenges today. In part, it states:

"[Employers] should not look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character. They are reminded that, according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to earn an honorable livelihood; but to misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them solely for their physical powers - that is truly shameful and inhuman."

"Again justice demands that, in dealing with the working man, religion and the good of his soul must be kept in mind. Hence, the employer is bound to see that the worker has time for his religious duties; that he be not exposed to corrupting influences and dangerous occasions; and that he be not led away to neglect his home and family, or to squander his earnings."

"Furthermore, the employer must never tax his work people beyond their strength, or employ them in work unsuited to their sex and age. His great and principal duty is to give every one what is just. Doubtless, before deciding whether wages are fair, many things have to be considered; but wealthy owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of this - that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one's profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine."

Enough said.

What do you think?

Michael Jackson: A Life of Great Creativity & Very Human Challenges

by Bill Seebeck

I can still remember watching 40 years ago as Michael Jackson and his brothers went on the stage of the Ed Sullivan show, with Diana Ross, who discovered them, sitting in the audience.

What startled me that night was how Michael took the microphone, as if he had been doing it for a thousand years and with a voice that from the moment you heard it, knew it was special, began singing and dancing about the stage. He stopped you. You had to watch. You instantly fell in love with him and for quite some time afterward, he became known as "Little Michael Jackson".

Well, Michael Jackson and his brothers became famous overnight and they never looked back, everything was before them and we, the audiences throughout the world, were the beneficiaries of his amazing creativity.

I was in college when Michael first hit the scene and only saw him once in person, it was during the 1993 Super Bowl in Pasadena, California where he was the half-time show. Watching the video again today of that performance reminded me of his extraordinary gifts as one of the most exciting entertainers of all time.

We will always listen to Michael's music. We will also remember the songs he wrote for the world, including Black or White, Heal the World and We Are The World, the last, a song written for African relief and performed as a group by just about every major talent in the music business at the time.

Unless you have traveled the world, it is hard to appreciate the enormous impact American music has had on so many cultures. I remember sitting in a Fuddrucker's restaurant in Jeddah Saudi Arabia 10 years ago and watched as a group of Saudi high school boys entered the restaurant dressed not in their traditional garb but in cargo pants, Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts, LA Laker hats worn backward and listening to the most popular radio station in the Kingdom back then -- U.S. Armed Forces radio. What were they listening to? Yes, American music and they all knew Michael Jackson.

However, the type of overnight success that fell upon Michael was both a great joy and a great burden. In our times, when you gain "your 15 minutes in the sun" as Andy Warhol used to say, your life is taken from you by the public. You're watched and followed twenty-four hours a day and someone always wants something from you for themselves. Now sometimes what they want is legitimate, yet more times than not, it is not. It feels at times that they are sucking the very marrow out of you and one of the things that you lose is the ability to trust others. It is a difficult life. You try very hard to create a life that you can trust, withdrawing into a type of cocoon. That space becomes your safety zone, the place you can always run to and survive the latest hurt or betrayal. That space became where Michael, despite all of his world fame, lived. It is no surprise then that this is where he was tempted by his demons, the same ones that tempt each of us in our lives of non-perfection.

So today, I remember Michael Jackson, the boy I first saw and heard, the man we all came to experience, the incredible entertainer that graced our lives and with whom he shared his truly extraordinary God given gifts. We are forever grateful.

May God's peace be upon you Michael.

Banks: The New Loan Sharks & Extortionists of the 21st Century?

by Bill Seebeck

Well, here it is the 21st of June. It's Father's Day.

Yet today, millions of credit card holders that have received notices from their banks since June 1st, know this is the beginning of a new cycle in which the percentage of funds due monthly on their accounts has doubled. Instead of having to pay 3% of their total amounts due, they will now have to pay 6% and for some of them at an interest rate upwards of 29%.

You know, I bet there are still some guys in prison doing time for loansharking in this country. What's a loanshark? That's someone who charged greater than a rate considered just by the society. That rate before the banks and Congress changed it used to be 23%. It was called the usury rate.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states that usury is a sin and frankly is so in every major Abrahamic religion. "...Lending money at interest give us the opportunity to exploit the passions or necessities of other men by compelling them to submit to ruinous conditions...[Usury has been defined] as the abuse of a certain superiority at the expense of another man's necessity....It is in itself unjust extortion, or robbery."

So, who are the loansharks now? Who are the extortionists?

What's extortion? Findlaw states, "Most states define extortion as the gaining of property or money by almost any kind of force, or threat of (1) violence, (2) property damage, (3) harm to reputation, or (4) unfavorable government action. While usually viewed as a form of theft/larceny, extortion differs from robbery in that the threat in question does not pose an imminent physical danger to the victim..."

I think it is fair to say that demanding highly monthly minimums at interest rates up to 29.99% can be viewed by the "card holder" as threatening. Failure to pay can result in harm to their reputations in the form of credit scores and possible default, and in this world, "no credit" can put a person and their family on the street in a nano second.

So, if you think that the banks are ok and that everything has changed, you are living in a world of dreams. Take a look around your neighborhoods and see how many empty stores there are and how many people are out of work. In part, it is because of what some banks did and what some banks continue to do.

What they are doing is squeezing, you, the public for their own benefit.

Definitely actions that are not in the interest of the public good.

Who are their monitors? Where are their monitors? How do they continue to get away with this stuff?

I'm upset by this, are you?

By the way, Happy Father's Day!