Christine McM
Massachusetts September 3, 2017This is a searing article.
In my career first in communications, then medical writing, I lived through five major downsizings, from the mid-eighties through 2003, which kept me hopping to the next company, always trying to get out in time.
From 1994 to 2012, I served mainly as an independent contractor for myself, only being on staff eight of those years. But the difference was choice: I opted for the freelance life, which paid well in my field.
The women in this article have far less choice. In the era of big business and in-house promotions and lifetime tenure extinct, outsourcing lower-level jobs for far less pay, and usually no benefits, brings a degree of worker exploitation.
When unions are gone, and investors expect a steady stream of higher dividends, the middle class gets hollowed out. Economists and efficiency experts think this is a good thing: core competency for the intelligentsia and the crumbs for contractors.
In short, contracting is great if you have skills, not great if you don't. Marta Ramos is in a dead-end job even though she works for one of the most profitable companies in the world.
I guess it all depends on what a nation values. Capitalism has eclipsed its dream for worker opportunity, creating class inequality. The US will have to come to grips with these changes sooner rather than later when the tension between the haves and have-nots becomes unsustainable.
가진 사람과 가지지 않은 사람
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/upshot/to-understand-rising-inequality-consider-the-janitors-at-two-top-companies-then-and-now.html