Friday, July 08, 2005
Even More Educational Stuff
From day one I definately thought school had problems. I've heard about kids that were allowed to study on their own - of course they were labled gifted and apparently all white.
And reading more of this book is interesting. Much of it isn't completely surprising, but resonates with my experience.
What is interesting is that much of what people like about me may be things that I developed in my personality from NOT having gone to school or church as often as prescribed!
Qoute about the economy and keeping us dumb:
And reading more of this book is interesting. Much of it isn't completely surprising, but resonates with my experience.
What is interesting is that much of what people like about me may be things that I developed in my personality from NOT having gone to school or church as often as prescribed!
Qoute about the economy and keeping us dumb:
First, says Zuckerman, the American worker is a pushover. That’s my translation, not his, but I think it’s a fair take on what he means when he says the American is indifferent to everything but a paycheck. He doesn’t try to tell the boss his job. By contrast, Europe suffers from a strong "steam age" craft tradition where workers demand a large voice in decision-making. Asia is even worse off, because even though the Asian worker is silenced, tradition and government interfere with what business can do.
Next, says Zuckerman, workers in America live in constant panic; they know companies here owe them nothing as fellow human beings. Fear is our secret supercharger, giving management flexibility no other country has. In 1996, after five years of record profitability, almost half of all Americans in big business feared being laid off. This fear keeps a brake on wages.
Next, in the United States, human beings don’t make decisions, abstract formulas do; management by mathematical rules makes the company manager-proof as well as worker-proof.
Finally, our endless consumption completes the charmed circle, consumption driven by non- stop addiction to novelty, a habit which provides American business with the only reliable domestic market in the world. Elsewhere, in hard times business dries up, but not here; here we shop till we drop, mortgaging the future in bad times as well as good.
