It’S Nothing Personal It’S Only Business: An Academic Research and Study Exploring the Calamitous and Far-Reaching Degeneration of American Business Today!

By William N. Spencer

Today in America, we are no longer the worlds largest market economy. If anything, the only thing greatest about the American economy is the amount of money we owe to other countries.

Politicians and activists portray big government as essential to safeguard the common good. There is no question we need the government to protect our rights and assure the rule of law. But overly large and politicized government ends up dominating and undermining a moral society. Instead of empowering people, big government programs, from welfare subsidies to corporate bailouts, promote dependency and deteriorate personal responsibility, encouraging both people and companies to make bad decisions.

How did we, as a country, allow our students and our citizens in general to become so economically uneducated in just two generations?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514454473

William N. Spencer

A life-long advocacy of youth ministry and teaching, with over forty years of work in the unionized labor sector, both public and private, has given me a strange perspective of the American workplace. After starting college at age 51, and ending with post-graduate degrees in both Management/Leadership and Human Resources Management, I have acquired the astuteness and discernment to put these shortcomings and faults into print.

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Copyright © 2016 by William N. Spencer.

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Rev. date: 01/26/2016

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Dedication

Forward

Prologue

Business/Economics 101:

In The Beginning:

How and Why:

Values, Ethics, Morals:

The Beginning of the End:

What’s What:

Feminine Perspective:

Corporate Corruption:

It Is What It Is:

How Can It Be?

Competition:

One Big World:

Facts of All Life:

Why We Are:

The Solution:

Important Issues:

To Think, Or Not:

A Few Final Words:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

THE TITLE OF this book, was not first used, or first spoken aloud in the great movie ‘The Godfather’, although this is where 99 percent of the American population heard it first. This famous line was originally attributed to a Mr. Otto Biederman—AKA—Otto ‘Abbadabba’ Berman. In the 1930s, as a gangster/mob/Mafia accountant, he became famous as a numbers wizard; able to keep straight two, three, or even four sets of accounting ledger books between the New York/New Jersey mobsters and the Internal Revenue Service.

Unfortunately for Mr. Biederman, in the world of real life, and in the world of organized crime, what goes around, comes around. So, in 1935, while in a New Jersey restaurant eating dinner, Otto Berman was gunned down and murdered along with three other Mafia gangsters.

DEDICATION

THERE ARE JUST so many different people to thank profusely as being the inspiration and incentive for this book, I hardly even know where or with whom to begin.

Perhaps the first and foremost would be the CEO at my last place of full-time employment; a man who authorized and approved the payment—at public/taxpayer’s expense—for most of my undergraduate and post-graduate education, while at the same time vehemently telling me that no matter if and when I did get my B.A. degree, my M.A. degrees, or my Ph.D., I would never work in his ‘front office’. So much for proper fiscal management and responsibility of the taxpayer’s money?

In this same vein, credit must go to the many business owners and CEOs who either refused to give me my well-earned, well-deserved promotions, or just defensively fired me to keep me from being a threat to their own career futures. This happens quite frequently, much more than most people realize. Scared little demi-god, low-level, incompetent managers, afraid to hire or promote well-educated and talented people.

And a special number one thank you to the anonymous women at the Louisville, KY. Fern Valley Road Kentucky State job center/unemployment office, who in the spring of 1998, refused to approve me for disability payments after my spinal displacement/replacement surgery, and recuperation at age fifty. If I had been approved for disability, I would have never been accepted by the VA for payment of my first two-year Associate Degree, beginning at age fifty-one, which I completed in only one year. What else was I going to do with my time? I was disabled—at least according to the VA, even if not the Unemployment Center—and unable to work, so therefore, I made the best of a bad situation.

So in reality, at a supposedly middle-age point in my life, I stepped into heap big piles of excrement, and came out smelling like roses. Who’d a thunk it, sports fans?

Thanks to all those people above. And a special shout-out danke-shon to my many scouting and youth ministry friends and acquaintances who went along with, and encouraged me in my years of ‘youthful and pointless’ academic endeavors.

FORWARD

TODAY, IN OUR great country, The United States of America, we are no longer the world’s greatest and most prodigious market economy, if anything, the only thing greatest about the American economy is the amount of money we owe other countries, primarily China. Since January 2009, everything about our country’s financial system has been dominated by what would best be described as a ‘command’ economy; our government’s elected and so-called leaders fraudulently proclaiming to know just what of anything and everything is supposedly best for all of us ‘average citizens’. In other words, we pay quite dearly for a multitude of products and services which we do not need our want (Obamacare), pointlessly squandering our hard earned hourly-wage-pay, only to further enrich the already rich politicians. As Homer Simpson would say: DOH! What is wrong with that picture?

Even though a slim majority of low-information, no-information—political and public issue-wise—Americans elected these ultra-radical liberals into power for the purpose of taking control of every sector of our lives, not just collectively, but at the individual level as well—from womb to the tomb—apparently these economically uneducated illiterates, with their Harvard and Yale law-degrees, most of whom have never worked even one day of their life in the private sector, they therefore have absolutely no real-world knowledge or concept of the American ‘supply and demand’ economy.

Allow me to list just a few public examples of relevant, pertinent, current information which easily explains why our economy is in the worst decline of American history.

In February 2007, when the evil George Bush was president, there were 2,427,000 more jobs for American citizens than there are today.

In February 2007, when the evil George Bush was president, there were 5,167,000 fewer unemployed Americans (5+ million American citizens who were working, earning a paycheck, and most importantly, paying income taxes).

Today, due to such exorbitant increases in confiscatory tax rates, there is much more money in every level of government treasury, and also in the American economy in general, but these revenues are going to fewer needy people than ever before, yet so much more is being paid out to support (kick-back payments) to big-money democrat party donors.

The average American can no longer afford to buy a new car. Thanks to GM/Obama. I supported and paid monthly dues into two different unions for over forty years, which I freely tolerated and abided by. But, I truly felt robbed and cheated when Obama and the UAW nationalized General Motors, and like low-class thieves, made off with my 401(k) fund’s stock assets worth over $25,000.00.

Top level, estate homes for the super-rich and wealthy, are selling like ‘hotcakes’, and have been ever since Obama became ‘king’, and these are by far outpacing sales of homes for middle and lower class Americans.

The average American home seller is observing home prices climb for rich people, but declining or stagnating for middle and lower class Americans.

The rest of us non-rich, non-wealthy Americans have to be content with home prices the same as fifty years ago.

And just because the Dow-Jones and the stock market are going through the roof with record high returns—for the rich; the low-information/no-information liberal democrat voter thinks that the American economy is doing just great—even if we are drastically declining economically.

Which just proves one point; in our great country, The United States of America, the average, ordinary American citizen has a right to be a believing liberal, and therefore, stupid!

While these very same unlearned liberals profess to idealize and idolize the concept of taxpayer funded anything and everything, they seem to have an absolute zero sense of where these ‘paid in’ tax revenues come from. Oh, like the private sector, middle-class wage earner, huh, who are they?

Forbes and Ames (2012) opine: "The nation has reached a turning point. In the media, in the classroom, and at the dinner table, debates are raging over health care, energy, entitlements, education—the future of America. They all come down to a single question: What kind of society do we want to be?

To put it another way: What best serves the public good—free markets or Big Government?

Politicians and activists portray Big Government as essential to safeguard the common good. There is no question we need government to protect our rights, and assure the rule of law. But overly large and politicized government ends up undermining a moral society. Instead of empowering people, Big Government programs, from welfare subsidies to corporate bailouts, promote dependency and undermine personal responsibility, encouraging both people and companies to make bad decisions. Overbearing regulations and excessive taxation hold people back from starting and growing businesses. They inhibit economic activity and wealth creation, keeping individuals and society from advancing. Intrusive rules—from insurance regulations to trans-fat bans—restrict enterprise, limit individual choice, and encourage abuses of power.

Supporters of Big Government insist that welfare and entitlement programs are the only way to provide compassion. But is it truly compassionate to create passivity and destroy human initiative. Free markets empower people and organizations to compete, to learn from missteps, and to adapt—to move ahead."

In many years past, over 50 to be exact, my many minimum wage jobs with weekly withheld deductions, which included the payment of Federal Income Tax, of which I DID NOT get even a 50 percent refund, taught me that workers—all workers at that time—were taxpayers. Yet today, less than one-half of all American citizens of working age pay any Federal Income Tax; and like magic, a large proportion get a refund of even more than they paid in, if they paid in anything at all. Am I the only one who detects something wrong with this situation?

And while the above scenario is quite disgusting and sickening to someone like myself, who had to work their way up from the bottom of the bottom—to today’s level, near the top of the lower third—at least most people were working, earning, spending, and therefore, were contributing to the supply and demand, and keeping the ‘trickle down’ economy successfully chugging along to the benefit of all Americans.

But today we ask, what jobs? But today we ask, what American businesses? Yes folks, it is positively and unequivocally true, since January 2009, our country’s democrat elected leadership has had only one goal, their ultimate dream for the American economy—and unfortunately they are succeeding very well towards their goal—and that is, to put every American business out of business, and to put every American worker out of work.

How did we, as a country, allow our students and our citizens in general to become so economically uneducated in just two generations? How is it that everything in our economic system that was good and worked quite well, such as the mis-named ‘trickle down’ process, is now degraded, debased, and besmirched by the 99 percent liberal mainstream media; and that everything that has consistently proven to be an failure economically, such as ‘Keynesian theory’, are being hailed for their greatness?

While this above disingenuousness of our politicians and so-called political leaders is accepted and ‘winked’ at by both Democrats and Republicans—most of whom are low-life, sleaze-ball, scum-bag lawyers, and therefore 99.44 percent liars about anything and everything—this is not ‘business as usual’ in the world of corporate business. Politicians/lawyers are usually exempt from most of the laws that they impose upon citizens and businesses, and as such, inflict great cost and expense onto anything and everything that we buy.

In business, whether as an owner, manager, or supervisor on the line, on the shop floor, in the corporate main office, in the Human Resources Department, or in Finance one must know the honest and truthful facts about economics—both Macro and Micro—without regard to any of the dishonest hype and diatribe coming from any and all of our government bodies, or better stated, in spite of these many government entities.

The education and study of honest, truthful and factual economics is desperately needed again in our colleges and universities; where failed systems and failed people—such as Keynesianism and its supporters like Paul Krugman—are only discussed as being the epitome of failure that they truly are, and efficacious people and flourishing systems are idolized and extolled as the successes that they are. We, as a nation, as a country, and as a culture, are ultimately destined for catastrophic failure if we continue to pursue fruitless economic systems that have always proven to fail, and we continue to ignore and refute those systems of proven success.

While our Westernized system of free-market capitalism may not be perfect, it is the fairest, most equitable system in the world, so far, at least still for now. Yes, many things could be better, but as we have seen everywhere else, they can easily, and most probably, get much worse. People everywhere are people just the same, for good or bad, better or worse; and all people, are the capitalist system.

Edward Younkins (1997) illustrates: Few would deny that capitalism is the most productive and efficient economic system, especially after the collapse of Soviet Communism. But some critics still contend that capitalism is not a moral system. Capitalism is itself only a means and requires its individual participants to decide on the ends to be pursued. No economic system can make people good. The best that an economic system can do is to allow people to be good. But morality and virtue require that individuals be free to be immoral and of bad character. Only when an individual has choice and bears responsibility for his actions can he be moral. Capitalism, more than other economic systems, allows the exercise of individual free will. Thus, though capitalism cannot guarantee a moral society, it is necessary for one.

The American system of free market capitalism, while under immense assault from liberals, is a very simplistic yet near perfect system as Allen Smith (2000) explains: "It has been said that most basic economic questions could be answered with three simple words: Supply and Demand. There is much truth to this statement. Why are the prices of gold, silver, and diamonds so high while the prices of other commodities, such as salt and flour are so low? Why are the incomes of professional athletes, movie and TV stars, and certain other workers so high while the incomes of unskilled workers are very low? Why do interest rates fluctuate up and down so much? Each and every one of these questions could be answered with the same words, ‘supply and demand’.

The law of demand is a simple concept. As the price of an item rises, and other factors remain unchanged, the quantity demanded by buyers will fall; as the price of an item falls, and other things remain unchanged, the quantity demanded by buyers will rise. This is little more than common sense. People will buy more of an item if the price is lower.

According to the law of supply, as the price of an item rises, and other factors remain unchanged, the quantities supplied by suppliers will rise; as the price of an item falls, and other factors remain unchanged, the quantities supplied by suppliers will fall.

Supply and demand together make a market. A market is the arrangement through which potential buyers and sellers come together to exchange goods and services. A market exists whenever and wherever the decisions of buyers and sellers interact through the law of supply and demand."

All levels of all business organizations, of all market sectors and genres—those Americans who hire and provide jobs and wages to millions of other Americans—must be extremely knowledgeable about every phase and nuance of the American economic system, both good and bad, political or civilian, Republican or Democrat, honest or dishonest, nation-wide and/or world-wide. In business, as in everyday life, the only thing constant is change; and changing with the flow of the time and tide is the only way to keep one’s head above water.

The Supreme Court decided, in the Citizens United case, that a business corporation is in and of itself a separate and individual ‘person’, to be treated as such unconnectedly to its owners and or managers. Basically, this one ruling leveled the playing field for ‘all’ big businesses, making ‘all’ businesses equal under the law. Prior to this ruling, a very few certain select big businesses—those deemed acceptable to the Democrat Party—such as any and all labor unions, the NAACP, the ACLU, all rich democrat lawyers, all rich Wall Street democrat investment bankers, and many/most individual federal, state, and/or local government agencies, were free to ‘donate’ any amount of money to any candidate (democrat of course) at any time they so desired. And now, equal is equal; and fair is fair, and the democrats at all levels hate it.

While an equivalent number of people agree and/or disagree with this interpretation, it is an important protection for both the business corporation and for the cost of products and services provided to the consumer customers. Edward Younkins (undated) adds a degree of insight to this premise: A free society recognizes individual rights and leaves each individual free to think, to act on his thoughts, and to enjoy the rewards of his actions. Business in a free society permits one to perform a specialized task, at which one excels, while gaining the benefits of others performing tasks at which they excel. Because talents vary from one person to another, they can create and enjoy more if they specialize in production and then exchange with others. Producers create values and then gain additional values from others through voluntary trade.

References:

Forbes, Steve and Ames, Elizabeth (2012): Freedom Manifesto:

Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn’t

Crown Business. Crown Publishing Group. New York

Younkins, Edward (1997): Business and Morality in a Free Society: Capitalism Is the Most Productive, Efficient, and Moral Economic System.

http://fee.org/freeman/business-and-morality-in-a-free-society/

Retrieved, December 2014

Smith, Allen W. (2000): Demystifying Economics: The Book That Makes Economics Accessible to Everyone

Ironwood Publications. Naples, Florida.

Younkins, Edward W. (undated): The Reality and Morality of Business.

http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/Younkins/The_Reality_and_Morality_of_Business.shtml

Retrieved, December 2014

PROLOGUE

OWNERS, MANAGERS, SUPERVISORS, all the way down to the shop-floor foreman have one, and only one real main duty and responsibility; and that is, to protect the profit-making capabilities of the company or corporation which pays them a salary or wage to do their job.

From a pure management perspective, employees (people) are really no different than any other fungible or interchangeable part in the company’s system of operation.

So let’s face the cold hard truth, almost anyone, whether in management or hourly peon-work would be ready, willing, and able to terminate any number of employees laboring below them, in order to save their own higher paying jobs—it’s not personal, it’s not business, unfortunately, it is just human nature.

Yes, maybe that scenario was more actual and factual at one time in the not so long ago past, but things have changed for the worse (worst?) economics-wise and job-employment-wise since January of 2008 when the assault against American corporations, American employers, and American employees commenced in full force.

Sure the little guy is put into a world of hurt; but hourly peon-work is available everywhere and anywhere, so what if another job is going to be for lower pay and less benefits?

Pack up and move, go to where the jobs are. That was how things played out decades ago; but now, why move, why work? Jobless/unemployment perks and benefits—in most states and urban localities—provide a relatively higher income than the majority of lower-paying available jobs.

The old corporate adage regarding downsizing was: We have to eliminate fifty percent of the jobs in order to save the other fifty percent. While that never was entirely true, a great many jobs were scratched, and many jobs were saved, but only in order to maintain certain levels of profitability, and thusly, to maintain the higher pay and perks for upper management.

Therefore, what It’s just business boils down to, is that anything damaging to the peon-worker is justified as long as those people in charge, and at the top of the food chain, are still well taken care of.

In the world of business, it really is business as usual when things are just plodding along, merely enduring as they always do, in the face of undemanding or unchallenging conditions. When the going gets tough, it is said that the tough get going; and this is where and when those supposedly overpaid CEOs earn their exorbitant salaries and benefits. Business as usual: Persistence in the ordinary course of events despite difficulties, incompetence, illegalities, immorality, and other hindrances; in other words, just keep plugging away at the same old daily grind, no matter what kind of excrement is hitting the fan. Whether it’s coming from the brass at the top, the customers in the middle, or your fellow peon in the adjoining cube; life, and business, must go on.

Laurie Wang (2009) adds an insight to this line of thought: "To many, success may mean fame and fortune.