We all did it. We stumbled out of school in a smoky haze, ready to take on the world and corporate America (Canada) wined and dined us into their collective arms. We sold out to the “Man.”
The decision wasn’t a difficult one to make, really. You could stay at home on the farm and work your butt off for five dollars a day or you could line up and join the rest of the crowd to get into one of the big factories popping up around southern Ontario. Once inside you could make almost five dollars per hour. Life was indeed good.
With promises of good wages and lucrative pension plans they lured us in. You could work your forty a week watching parts, pieces or consumables roll of the assembly line. As long as you could withstand the tedium and the noxious fumes, gases and fluids involved, you were deemed a good fit.
The factory generation grew up with the goals and ideals the “Man” gave us. We worked diligently and remained loyal to the corporate family and we knew that in the end we would be looked after.
Things went along quite well for our generation. We worked, we saved, we became consumers. We never had to think or worry about when or where our next meal was coming from, unlike the generations before us.
The big corporations also prospered. They grew, they produced even more consumable products and they became rich. They grew and bought smaller companies and brought them into the corporate fold. The world became much smaller and we all felt bigger in it.
However, we have seen the big corporations become increasingly greedy over the last few years. Top executives have been caught pilfering the profits. Creative bookkeeping became the order of the day and executives scrambled to control the bleeding. Some companies went broke and the rest became increasingly involved in the new global economy where wages were cheap and the environment wasn’t such a big issue. To remain competitive at home, the corporate giants are downsizing, trying to make more with less.
The big dot.com’s crashed, large corporations fell into financial ruin and a wavy stock market became less predicable. The tide had turned and the large workforce that these companies once employed became expendable. Many employees have fallen victim to drastic cost cutting measures. Pensions were lost or at best stagnated. Early retirement has become the norm at a lot of companies, but not to make room for brand new workers. Generally, loyalty and trust between employer and employee has been eroded.
Many of the remaining jobs have become temporary and benefits are some-what non-existent. A young person leaving the education system now is somewhat limited in job selection at home. The bottom line is, if you want to work, you may have to move. If you want a career, plan on having several jobs during your working cycle. Above all, you will need to plan for your own retirement.
Now the work options seem to have come full circle. You may now consider a career in farming. You will be able to be the master of your own destiny, completely independent from the interference and ideals of others. You will be able to reap the benefits of your own hard work, instead of holding out hope that some of the profits will trickle down from CEO’s high above. You’ll keep what you earn, after taxes.