Top of the Heap...

9/4/11- "The Top Of -The Heap" by Marty Schwartz & M. Asinoff – (his idea – 95% me).

Guess what! You know how joy, love, people & security are measured in money & success is the “best perfume”? Well, guess what! I'm "drenched" in it…And “reeking"! I just got a great job…as a garbage man! Yes! …A garbage man! That isn't just a “huge aspiration” in places like N.Y.C... It's a “major status symbol”...like a “blue-collar, accountant!”

George Romero’s (horror film- maker) dad told him to start-working on his pension early: be a-garbage man when he finished h.s. He knew actors & athletes make $$ & being a garbage man isn’t him.

That’s ok as it’s me & I'm happy! I made it! Now I can afford to look & act- like a “real, big- shot! Hell”, now I –can- afford- to- hang- out- in- night-clubs on- weekends & tell- babes I'm “connected”. Women like “bad boys”. We’re exciting.
So- what if- I -get a “little creative” with reality? They'll “buy” it when they see my- big, wad of bills & Gold Chains. I won't tell them I'll be picking-up trash, Monday, or the Lincoln’s my dad's. You see I grew up on the streets & never was, or pretended to be book smart. Although I worked very hard on my “MFBH: Masters” in Football, Baseball & Hockey! I guess I glorify actors & athletes like many Americans.
Want to know something? My smart pals still working fear being let-go. So they furlough two days a month (work free=10% pay cut) while unemployment rises, management gets TARP & Million $ bonuses. And California officials got new Caddys &
Lexus with unlimited, usage, despite Six-Billon–dollar -Deficit.

Big shots take care of themselves in gov’t., & business. It took from 1789–1992 to ratify the 27th Amendment limiting Congressional pay raises.

Management wants more profit every quarter. So corporations are in merger "mania" & outsourcing. You are lucky to get severance pay & a reference. Not that references matter. There are no jobs. Auto plants are closing. GM now stands for Government Motors.

People delete degrees from their resumes cause - they’re over qualified. It’s no wonder they quit job hunting & owe Visa their “third born”, despite finishing- college.

The rich get richer, the poor, poorer & the middle class “beat down.” The poverty rate’s climbing along with the deficit.
We got a tax rebate. And it’s-income you are re-taxed on! That should be illegal! At
least muggers -use- guns & knives!

Despite Billions in TARP $ banks foreclosed @ “warp speed” because people can’t get a job & need second mortgage to pay a foreclosure lawyer. Scrape together your life savings to buy your dream home from foreclosure sale & banks can dupe you with someone’s secondary mortgage & are busting: gov’t.- lawsuits-over bad mortgages were
moved to US court.

The economy made thrifty, college grads move back home. They can’t support their pets, much less themselves. And oscillate between demoralization, depression, emasculation, frustration & indignation. A job’s a big part of- who-guys are, especially pros.

The new Republican Congress will cut the deficit / taxes & de-fund health care. Unfortunately, they’re “in –bed” with big business who outsource & want youngsters. So middle- aged people are –not- much- better- off- career wise.
If you were 50+ companies gave early retirement bonuses. Now they just dump you, indifferent to the fact society’s youth obsessed & you have better odds on Moses’ encore than getting a job.

People can’t buy new cars @ 0% for six years & employee discounts.
Lucky we live longer as- they’ll be paying their master…card till they’re 99 cause- interest rates jump if you’re late, or miss a payment.

Retirement’s “mission impossible”: the govt. cut Medicare / SS & finds new taxes / owes China Billions / harasses motorists in a blackout to pay interest on exploding deficit. Although I must balance my budget the govt. just prints more $ & international companies only loyalty is $. They shift profits overseas to avoid taxes / raise profits. President Bush helped them by cutting their taxes during war.
It’s hard to believe growing up in the 60’s my dad was a mechanic, supported ma, four kids & subsidized his ma & uncle. We- had a house & car. And all he owed was a mortgage. He just had-a- h. s. diploma & did it on about $200 a week…gross! I can’t support my pet on that.

If the Labor Dept. says costs rose, the Stock Market plummets! People aren’t assets to nurture anymore. We’re disposable “appliances” / expenses to cut. Downsizing’s the “buzz word” of the 80’s & 90’s & outsourcing’s the new Millennium’s.

Companies exploit international students, needy immigrants, part-timers, temps, independent contractors, go overseas, etc. And have accountants double as advisors to find very creative ways to inflate stock prices & “reinvent” math: 1+ 1= anything u want…until “big brother busts” you. It’s- ok: fines are a business expense.
When the stock market collapses, “Uncle Sam” bails- you-out- for-Billions, you still get huge bonuses / take fancy, vacations on tax $. It’s “Heaven”… if the public doesn’t threaten to kill you.

Today there are so few employees left & so much work there's no lunch, raise, bonus, or profit sharing. People must do two or three- jobs & work o.t. free to save the company money. Gripe = fired.
NYS elected Cuomo, despite his work @ Housing & Urban Development being major contributor to the housing crises: pushing mortgages to the poor who couldn’t afford them.

The govt. does it too: Post Office hires for their “special”: no holiday pay & after 89 days you go. So you don't get benefits. If you're good, they rehire you a day later for another 89 & it restarts. They “cry” the “blues,” raise postage etc. to ensure “big shots’”’ bonuses & raises! How do Fed Ex, UPS, etc. make it?
The govt. say unemployment's down. Not how many took big pay cuts, are p/t, or temp & excludes energy & food. If we didn’t have to drive & eat daily it wouldn’t be so absurd. It reminds me of an old boss: he said I’m promoted…in position only = no raise.

I often quote an expression I heard as a great reply to things like that: lawnmower. I can’t lend u mine for any absurd reason. I lol while people seek a link. Then ask connection? There is none. One excuse is as good as another.

Anyway, I'm no economist. But wonder how people who lose their jobs can afford to buy homes & cars? And what happens if those who aren't let- go, fear they're next, so they don't? This doesn't seem like a- plan for long-term success. That’s why the government’s bailing out the auto industry & banks & driving interest rates down. Banks won’t lend or pay interest. Yet executives take fancy –business- trips, spend thousands redecorating their offices, get huge bonuses, etc. on tax $.

While Henry Ford was anti Semitic/ pro Nazi knew it’s-good business to give his men a raise so they could buy a Model T! His great, grandson, Bill was CEO & couldn’t, despite closing -plants & firing 35K cause labor pays for management’s ineptness & the Japanese beat us @ our own “game”: thinking long- term: making compacts. Alan Mulally helped it live without TARP $, unlike gov’t.-Motors, & Chrysler.

Luckily, I don't have to worry. I've got good pay & benefits. I should- be “cloned” cause they can put a man on the Moon & a robot on Mars, but they still need me to collect trash! That's job security! Maybe I’m smarter than my successful pals: I can retire in 20 years at half pay! I I’d teach, if it didn’t cost thousands to get degrees so drug-addicted / evil / “possessed”/ sadistic / uncivilized / unloved / unwanted / violent / kids & parents can assault, curse & threaten me. + I must spend hundreds on supplies cause the city cutback. I don’t think so. No- one bothers garbage men. We’re not crazy. We don't go- “postal”.

Besides, education's a paradox today: a Bachelor's Degree equals a high school diploma 20 years ago. You need college for most jobs & people assume if you went you're smart. Unfortunately, there are so many doctors & lawyers it's "degree inflation". Many people work so hard & borrow a small fortune to be one, yet can't get a job making enough to repay their loans because paralegals & physician’s assistants earn a fraction of their salary because all a P. A needs-is a B.S. to examine patients & write scripts.

President Clintons said there are too many doctors. So Uncle Sam paid hospitals not to hire any. Now Oboma’s bent on imposing socialized health care on us & making premiums rise. Many blacks say if you criticize him you are racist. I dislike Hillary cause she wants to recognize Hamas & other Arab terrorists. The only colors I care about are Blue, Red, White, Green, Gold, Silver, & Pink (sex).

Employers begrudge you a life / are “vampires”/ want to “own” your heart / soul. They “settle for body & mind.” Companies cut workers pay, health care & pension, make them work @ home, rob ½ their pension to keep their job, then dump them to save severance pay when they hit 50 & hire a temp, p / t, or outsource for less. There are-so many unemployed, college grads, employers are picky. The longer you are unemployed & older you are the harder it is to get a job. Yet “big shots” get larger raises / retention bonuses every year, even if the company loses $. What’s wrong with that?

Maybe I'm wrong, but as I see it, if we're not world-leader in technology in the new millennium, we will be in trash pick-up! Who needs college? I'm "King of the- Hill"! I reached the "top of the garbage heap" without it! And I graduated high school with a D average! Talk about irony!