Labor

Watching the last drive of Monday Night Football was a total joke.  Seattle could not move the ball against Green Bay all half.  On their last two drives, the replacement refs turn around an interception on a garbage call, they give a total bail out call on a phantom pass interference penalty on 3rd and long.  And then the final play, which was clearly an interception, they call a touchdown and give the game to Seattle.  This was the most preposterous football game I've ever seen.  The press has been up in arms about the replacement refs for weeks now - it is almost a joke to contribute more noise to the problem.  But I have another angle: this is a reflection of the weakness of labor relative to big business in America today.

The replacement refs are clearly out of their league.  They are clueless.  They cannot handle the gig.  Perhaps it is training, perhaps it is innate ability, whatever, it doesn't matter.  They cannot do the job.  But the NFL does not care because the customers will still watch and it does not hurt the pocketbook of the league.  Therefore, they feel no compunction to make their product better and set a precedent that the NFL will cave to labor demands.  They are willingly putting out a shoddy product because they know we have nowhere else to go for quality football and it would take years and billions of dollars for a competitor to spring up.  So they have a monopoly (no one cares about that issue) and won't budge on labor issues.

What happened?  What is going on in the American consciousness today with our contempt for skilled labor?  We are for the most part happy for the government to bail out fat ass, inefficient corporate and banking giants such as GM and Citigroup and AIG and provide enormous tax breaks and benefits and funding to scams like Solyndra, conglomerates like GE, and allow the NFL to run a monopoly to the tune of 9 billion a year, but we can't pay replacement refs the wage premium they deserve for being at the top of their profession (I'll admit to not knowing the numbers - nor caring all that much - you could pay them each 2 million a year and I'd be fine with it).

A couple years ago the grocery workers in LA were striking for more money.  It was tough for me at the time to sympathize with them.  They wanted something like $20 a hour for an unskilled job.  They lost.  Now I see self-check out in most grocery stores.  I don't like it.  It's a pain.  I like workers at stores.  I like feeling like I'm part of a world where human beings do things and the store is being run by a crew of people.  I'll pay a premium for this - although I doubt these machines are all that much more efficient or cost saving.  These machines break down and get confused.  The customers don't know what they're doing.  They are always asking someone for help.  Some customers are certainly lying and ripping off the store about what type of tomatoes they are buying, etc.  In the end, I doubt this will be the cotton gin or the PC - really it is just a negotiating tactic to pay people shit - and say - don't complain or else will bring in the machines.

If left unchecked, market capitalism cannibalizes itself.  I listened to an interview with David Simon the other day.  He said the newspapers were ruined they day they went from being community owned to conglomerate owned.  When the wall street analysts got their hands on newspapers, it ruined news coverage in this country.  When he worked at the Baltimore Sun, there were 600 reporters.  5 were devoted to covering crime.  One person was assigned the courthouse and just covered the court all day.  Now, there are 165 reporters and 1 person for all of Baltimore covering crime.  He acknowledges maybe 600 was bloated - so perhaps it should have been 550 or 500 even.  Maybe the analysts had a small point about efficiency.  But it didn't stop there and now you have a system where the "news" as he understands it, simply doesn't exist.  It doesn't get covered.  There is tons of "commentary" via the internet, etc, but there isn't coverage.  There isn't a person who knows what is going on minute-to-minute at the courthouse.  There are just bloggers and other people spouting off opinions.

Now I might be sounding like a ridiculous communist, but consider this:  what the hell are 300 million American supposed to do with their time?  What do you think happens when 20% of the population is perpetually unemployed?  What do you think happens when the elite make their money by holding investments and flipping property and having the right connections?  What do you think happens when "average" people can only make $15 per hour?  (and by the way - that's 150 plus million people - because by definition, the majority of folks).  What does society look like when these forces are left unchecked?  It will be very, very ugly.  You can catch a preview by watching the last drive of the Monday Night Football game.