A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR ‘THE PEOPLE’
When GOP Senate leader Bill Frist recently proposed that Uncle Sam send $100 to every American family as a way to assuage public anger over skyrocketing gasoline prices, he was hooted down by his fellow Republicans, who labeled the giveaway “a bribe,” “an insult” … and “stupid.”
But then, only days later, Frist and the Republicans rammed yet another tax-cut boondoggle through Congress, which will result in Uncle Sam giving an average of $42,700 to each and every American millionaire.
Speaker Denny Hastert called this bill “a day of celebration for the American people,” and George W. called the vote “an important step to continue to help hard-working Americans.” Well, yeah, if you’re one of the one-tenth of 1% of Americans who are millionaires, finding an extra 42K in your pocket can be of some help … and is certainly a cause for celebration. You could buy 42 bottles of Dom Perignon’s best champagne, for example – and have a heck of a celebration.
But as for you “hard-working” folks – forget it. Let’s say you make under $30,000 a year, which is the income level of nearly half of the American people. What’s your cut from the GOP’s big tax bonanza? It will average a whopping – get ready to be excited – five bucks. It’s hard to celebrate large on that.
The GOP’s giveaway is a blatant bribe being paid to its core political base of rich families. Meanwhile, it will take $70 billion out of our public treasury during the next two years. That’s money that’ll go to champagne parties rather than to health care, education, parks, and other programs that America’s hard-working folks really need.
When Bush, Frist, and Hastert talk about “the American people,” they mean millionaires like themselves – not you.
LONG-DISTANCE BURGER ORDERS
Okay, corporate America is shipping our manufacturing, high tech, and professional-service jobs off to Lowwagehellistan – but at least they can’t send our fast-food jobs away, right? After all, these require face-to-face dealings with customers, so surely they’re safe.
Well … not exactly. Pull into the drive-through lane at a McDonald’s, Hardee’s, or Carl’s Jr., and there’s a chance that the friendly voice on the intercom saying, “Do you want fries with that?” is not inside the building – or anywhere near your town. Unbeknownst to customers, these fast-food chains are testing a new computerized system that centralizes order-takers in faraway call centers.
Pull up to the burger window in Mississippi or Honolulu, for example, and the voice saying, “Would you like to supersize your drink?” is likely to belong to one of 125 order-takers working out of the Bronco call center in Santa Maria, Calif. They take your orderfrom a couple thousand miles away, then zap it back to your local burger flipper via the Internet.
Why? To cut labor, of course. By centralizing the process, order-taking can be regimented, sped up, and closely monitored. Each call-center worker, who is paid only $6.75 an hour with no benefits, takes up to 95 orders an hour – 11Ú2 per minute! As Bronco’s big boss puts it: “Their job is to be fast on the mouse.” Charming. Software constantly tracks workers’ speed – and even in their break room, a computer screen ticks off the number of minutes each one has been away from his or her station.
There are a couple of pluses to the job, however. Order-takers don’t have to wear a uniform and one of those silly paper hats, and they don’t go home smelling like hamburgers.
At least these call center jobs are in America – but how long before they’re shipped offshore, where an order-taker can be had for a dollar or two a day?
This article appears in June 2 • 2006.