Article first published as Take Your Twinkie and Shove It! on Blogcritics.
Ten years ago, my English professor talked on the
“dumbing down of America.” He addressed the fallen educational standards
allowed in our primary and secondary education system. I think it has gone
further than research papers and grammar. It isn’t about the teachers and the
education system, it’s about our society. We have dumbed down on levels that
are driving us into poverty. We have become a lazy, blame laying, cumbersome
society.
Now, it isn’t a secret that I have said Romney was the
example of what happens when a billionaire is told no. I don’t understand why
the true, tea partying, republican base, didn’t see the corruption in the
beginning when their party was using voter fraud against one of their own, Ron
Paul. They didn’t even see it. Their hate for President Obama far outweighed
the corruption. They couldn’t see it. They hopped on the anti labor force band
wagon and they bashed unions, when the destruction to our economy is a blatant
continuance of billionaires that are told no.
We have Papa John’s Pizzaria whining that the costs of
national health care will boast their costs by a whopping fourteen cents per
pizza. Now, simple economics will prove that $.14 cent per pizza will be passed
on to the consumer by at least a $.25 cent per pizza increase in price. Instead
of admitting that truth, they whine, they say they can’t afford it. “Oh, we are
going to have to close our doors and cost American’s jobs, all because of
Obamacare.” Horsepucky. If they close their doors it will be because the owner
in making a point, he is going to starve his previous employees, the same ones
that helped him acquire his wealth, to rebel and whine.
Now, here comes Hostess. They are closing their doors.
People are in a tizzy, because they may not get their King Dongs. Are you
serious? Is this really the America that stood tall? We look like a country
full of idiots, not innocents, because the truth is apparent. The global world
can’t even feel sympathy for our position, because it’s based on chosen
ignorance.
The truth about Hostess goes far beyond the bakers
union. These workers have conceded to the hilt.
Hostess receiving clerk, Mike Hummell, said he was
making $48.000 a year in 2005. This was before the first Hostess bankruptcy.
The union members voted in concessions due to reorganization last year,
dropping Hummell’s income to $34,000, or $16.12 per hour. The latest Hostess
demands would have dropped Hummell’s income to about $25,000 per year, with
significant higher insurance costs. How is he supposed to live? Hasn’t this
employee conceded enough? Should he simply be thankful for a job in this
economy?
Here is the bigger problem: While Hostess is demanding
their employees take another concession, costing over half of their previous
wage and benefit package, twelve of the CEO’s have increased their income by
300 percent shortly before filing bankruptcy. Tell me, Tea Partiers’, how does
that work to help America?
How can the poor continue to lose and become poorer,
while CEO’s are using their labor force to secure their own insurance, income,
and retirement? What you don’t give, they will take, and if you try to stand up
for yourself, you will be jobless; you will pay for saying no. Republican’s,
let me ask you this: is this what your party considers “legitimate rape?”
How can companies continue to ask employees to take huge
hits when they are already struggling to pay their bills, while CEO’s reap
millions, securing their personal wealth?
Gregory F. Rayburn, CEO of Hostess says that the
problem has always been the cost of structure, the union rules, the pension
legacy, the pension cost and cost structure.
Right before bankruptcy, Rayburn’s salary soared from
$750.000 to a whopping $2,550.000 million. This is a CEO that is asking his
employees to work for $25,000 a year with less health coverage, higher health
costs, and pension slashes.
Hostess wanted to cut pension costs from $100,000,000 a
year to $25,000.000, while the CEO is securing his own retirement package,
wealth. Only in today’s America.
All the while, America is up in arms, paying high
prices for a Twinkie. Are the people so dumbed down that they are clueless to
the fact that Hostess will not die, they will pretend to sell, open under
another name, and push Twinkies, once again? Your King Dongs are safe. The King
Dongs aren’t going to let it die, be realistic.
Mexican billionaire, Daniel Servifie Montull, owner of
El Groupo Bimbo, the largest bread baker in the world, showed interest in
purchasing the 82 year old Hostess. Rayburn quashed that idea, quickly, saying
that tariffs wouldn’t allow for the purchase. Rayburn did say he had many potential buyers,
though he wouldn’t disclose the name of the proposed bidders or private equity
investor’s, but he did say the company was “more attractive to buyers without the
unions.” Of course.
It’s another union busting move. Yes, Hostess will
liquefy, reopen, pay minimum wage, no benefits, and you will all still get your
Twinkies. Obviously, that is what is important in America, the comfort
principle. Then people will complain that the food stamp rolls have grown
again, blame the president, say liberals are out for entitlements, and make up
whatever else their short sighted minds can come up with.
This is the new way of America. The billionaires are
angry. They tried their best to buy this election, and again, just like before,
they lost. We are going to hit a new low of poverty, the wage will get lower,
the cost of living higher, and job’s bills will become mute in a Congress that
presses on for recession to get their way. No, it’s not the president. It’s the
stronghold the billionaires have on the nation. Food stamps, low wages, and
poverty will be the new way of the land. Get used to it. It is the new American
principle.
Till the next time America, Wake Up!!!
Peace,
Pam
