pdxfed
Meanwhile, your biggest advertisement to the labor force has been congressional investigations due to your management practices and products failing and killing people
Can’t think why people wouldn’t be excited to work for Boeing, who wouldn’t want to build their resume there?
The golden goose is timeless. Greed is a challenge in the best of times and for those of us living in deregulated capitalist hell, it can seem more like being a goose in a butcher shop. I constantly watch businesses squeeze in the short term to fail in the long term. Every quarter every day, people make the same, predictable greedy decisions and in the current system are often shielded from the consequences.
So I work in HR. There are lots of problems with the function as it’s setup in many companies, some reasons are the same and other times it’s industry or company practices or norms that create problems.
I’ve thought for a good 15 years on and off as I’ve gone through my career about going back for a master’s and Cornell has the most respected, highest-rate Labor/Industrial Relations(IR) program in the country. That they doubtless have teachers that could explain and fix simple issues like the one mentioned in the article, but pretend they aren’t in a position to do so while finance and accounting MBAs that have taken over corporations for 4 decades and colleges going on a couple of decades, says everything you need to know about the state of US higher education, HR, and organizations and it’s this;
Organizations in the US don’t want to fix most problems. As a society the US has a culture of avoiding pain and never wanting those in power to be uncomfortable since those people wrote most rules. Fixing problems is hard, there is pain, and of course losers in any change process. Corporations that say they can’t hire enough talent but haven’t tried drastically increasing wages, when they say they can’t retain but offer no real career path or mentorship allocated time as part of your work…there are hundreds of examples that all boil down to one word that is constantly and inaccurately used: disingenuousness.
Back to Cornell, and my masters. Each year, like many thinking of higher Ed or an advanced degree, the number looks worse when you consider the ROI and C/B analysis. Each year, also the more I work, the more it’s clear to me that there is no point in abstract knowledge without the power to implement it…especially given the cost. That Cornell is so poorly run that they have the Jordan of programs on the same campus they’re systematically underpaying and disenfranchising the next generation of those they bless with a degree …holy hell is it time to pull the plug on these gatekeeping, privilege-enforcing institutions run by short-sighted people who care nothing for the founding mission. The mothballing of free speech on campus by tuition-paying students when the subject was something that challenged US military hegemony and made wealthy donors upset, again, tells you everything you need to know.
The sad part is I am scared about what corporate, for-profit, AI-driven, 1984-seems-docile-by-comparison replacement will rise from the ashes when higher Ed implodes. Projections put probably half of private schools closing in the next 10-20 years, any private school that isn’t top rated will be gone, and that’s not all bad. Line can’t always go up.
I’m reading Work, Retire, Repeat currently and you’re correct…only they arent so much reentering as not leaving. Many start claiming SS as soon as they can for extra money while they work…only they shoot themselves in the foot by not waiting longer to claim much higher (8%/year) benefits. Waiting until 70 nets you 96%(!) higher benefits. The rich who don’t actually need the extra 8% largely benefit, and because they live longer, collect it for longer. The poor get screwed again, which of course aligns with minorities and women being the most affected.
This started in the 80s when corporations took advantage of Regan’s policy to shed pensions and instead, ask financially illiterate Joe’s and Janes to manage stock accounts and decide how much they should save. The results were predictable. There have been winners though, corporations (much cheaper 401ks), and financial service industry that sprang up to support pillage uninformed retirees trying to save money to find their retirement for the first time. Regan admin also raised the retirement age to 67 for Social Security in 1983. This represents a permanent 13% decrease in benefits for Americans as it’s 13% less time on average they’ll collect based on mortality rates
There has been a large media gull-court press to try to make working longer because:
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Government knows citizens aren’t saving enough and without pensions can’t manage retirement funds. They are put in power by lobbiests that prevent changes to the 401k structure and repairing social security.
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Corporations love older workers; they have fewer options despite the magazine covers showing laughing, healthy retirees on their laptop overlooking their vineyard. In reality they are working physically and mentally taxing jobs no one else will, and this also suppresses wages for younger workers. This is another reason why corporations lobby like hell against national healthcare…TONS of folks would stop working or work much less if they could see a doctor without bankrupting themselves, but can’t until they are eligible for Medicare.
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Financial services want that money. Asset management, trade fees, expense ratios, “financial advisors” instead of fiduciaries so much easier to bully folks when they are on their own or in small groups. National programs have buying power and muscles in the marketplace, bad for worthless leeches.
