On Paris TV "In America people who work for a living get treated like dirt"

[TwixVoy]

Just heard that on TV in Paris, France.

How is it everyone else in the world can see how labor is being treated in this country, but so many people who live here just can't seem to figure it out?

[BattyDem]

1. You know what the worst part is?

Many people in this country, especially the ones who are being treated like dirt, will hear that comment and get really pissed off ... at the French! I can already hear them complaining ... "How DARE they insult America?!?" :eyes:

[JI7]

50. yup, and that's the problem isn't it ?

many americans have become convinced that any criticism of America , even when it does something bad to it's own people is an insult to them personally.

like Obama comments on small town people clinging to things when things are not going well for them.

[upi402]

2. The Japanese trade minister said they treat pets better in Japan

and things have gone downhill for workers since that was said several years ago. SE Asia is little worse, really, that's all. But they have better medical care and no heat bill.

[whathehell]

26. That is

probably and overstatemt:eyes:

Their culture is very different...If you screw up as a manager in Japan, they send you to "bad managers school" where you are publicly humiliated.

I had a Japanese roomate back in the eighties and she told me that, at the time, at least, elementary school children were so pressured academically they were killing themselves.

Having said that, I AM a strong supporter of workers' rights...My father was a strong union supporter all of his life and so am I.

[Marr]

3. I think most Americans know it very well.

The problem is that our government is not as responsive to the people, because it's more insulated from us. The average French citizen can have a lot more leverage on their government than the average American can. Our media is very different as well. The picture the USA sends out is the picture that Wall Street *wants* to send out. You think GE is going to talk about the plight of the average peon they're fucking over in sixteen different ways?

I really think one of the worst things that can happen to a people is empire. Empires rape their citizenry almost as bad as they rape their colonies.

[HillbillyBob]

5. You are on the right track, now to get the rest of the US imperial peons to

understand that..I have been trying for almost 30 years. I have a few converts, but for the most part..Im just some crazy...

[conscious evolution]

17. Welcome to the club

Sheople don't want to hear truth.It requires them to think.

[Chulanowa]

11. No, I disagree

I think the majority of Americans don't really recognize this. Why? Because from the first day an American can understand language, we're indoctrinated with the idea we can be anything, that we will someday get our "lucky break" to make it big and leave our woes, our troubles, and most importantly our bills behind.

We are brought up to think of ourselves as being that one-in-a-million individual who actually gets lucky at the right time. We are so fully indoctrinated into this mindset, that we will never "rock the boat" for fear of having to start over on the process of "making it" all over again.

In short (and crude), we're waiting for the "magic hand" to give us a reacharound, and don't want the buttfucking to stop for fear we might not get that happy ending.

[Hannah Bell]

15. It's not only the "might get rich" meme. I've observed several others even here at DU.

- Disrespect for blue collar workers (as evidenced by the discussion of the auto situation)

- Education snobbery to the extent that people who aren't specialists in a field are deemed ignorant & their opinions not worth discussing, their services of low worth. Lack of skepticism toward the degreed "experts" despite much evidence that it's warranted.

- Class-based snobbery, e.g. in global denigrations of "red-staters" (who are supposedly all ignorant hicks from the sticks) & religious people (who are also supposedly all ignorant, uneducated cousin-marrying morons)

- Disrespect for lower-tier professions such as teaching.

These attitudes - the attitudes of the middle to upper-middle "strivers" - also impact the treatment of working people in the us. A lot of them - I've heard it a million times - are quite ok with attacks to the living standards of those beneath them on the ladder, & their passive or active support has been a major reason for the success of those attacks.

What goes around comes around.

[Berry Cool]

19. To some extent, I agree with you on that. To a large extent, actually.

I think that a certain degree of respect and listening should be afforded to those who do have some experience and knowledge of a given field. Of course, here anyone can claim any credentials and be lying out their ass, but one hopes that won't be the case and that frauds will be quickly exposed.

There is, however, a good deal of disrespect on DU for (first and foremost) anyone who believes in a religion other than atheism (and yes, as far as I'm concerned, it's a religion) or paganism, and second, class-based red state/blue state snobbery or maybe, in the post-2008 era, it's more accurate to call it "anti-Midwest/South/Southwest snobbery." It's part of the reason it was so hard for so many to process the idea that Prop 8 could pass in California--it had to be blamed not only on the political agitation of outside conservatives but on the conservative nonwhite population and their supposed annoying intolerant fundie religiosity--while Iowa could approve gay marriage. What, Iowa??? Those corn-eaters in the sticks are more open-minded than CALIFORNIANS??? It can't be...

After that comes snobbery against those without a college degree who work blue-collar jobs. Being blue-collar is OK with some people only if you have lots of degrees, but are underemployed because of some kind of unfortunate circumstance that has forced you to take a job "beneath" you in order to make ends meet. To actually BE blue collar by choice or because one lacked many choices in life--for example, because one was never particularly "book smart"--is still looked down upon by many.

[Hannah Bell]

23. I agree, credentials & expertise deserve some respect. But credentialed

experts can & have been seriously wrong about many many things, & have serious biases. Everyone deserves the courtesy of having their arguments & not their personal psychological profiles debated, or being told to "go educate" themselves, etc.

I come from a working class background but wound up getting 3 degrees, & spent enough time in academia & the professional world to know those folks as a group are no smarter or capable than the folks i grew up with. The difference = money, power & sense of entitlement = confidence & ability to intimidate or mystify those further down the money/power scale. Some of the most prejudiced people i ever met were upper-middle class liberals who didn't even recognize their own prejudice & the nastiness in the way they expressed it. You could not express a different opinion in that environment without very careful parsing, anymore than you could say nice things about MLK at a klan rally.

and like you say, it creates huge political blind spots.

[TwixVoy]

41. Bingo

Nailed it.

[Vidar]

44. Way too true.

[OnionPatch]

43. I don't know. I think we're conditioned to think if we don't "make it"

it's because we were lazy, or we deserved it somehow. There was something wrong with us. We should have been smarter and picked the "right" profession (as if we could foresee which industry gets shipped out to cheap labor next) or we should have gotten a better education, even if we have to work 8 hours a day while we're doing it and live on peanut butter sandwiches. We should have been clever enough to think up some get-rich scheme. If we can't do any of those, we deserve to be poor.

Our society doesn't value hard work. It values craftiness, ruthlessness and aggression. Until that changes, working people will not get their fair share of the pie.

[dixiegrrrrl]

46. Very perceptive.

[blindpig]

24. You know why they have leverage?

It's because they hit the streets, the general strike. They don't ask meekly, they demand. The reason they can do this is because they have a Left, commies, socialists, anarchists, organizers and a tradition.

We got a lot of catching up to do.

[BlooInBloo]

4. Yah, yah. We're working on it. The electorate finally got some grownups in charge.

[ShortnFiery]

6. To add insult to injury, ALL our GOP legislators and the lion's share ...

of Blue Dog/DLC/Third Way Democrats behave like the LOYAL members of the Omega Theta Pi during the Fraternity Pledge Ceremony Scene, i.e. the 70s flick "Animal House."

No matter how many times LABOR is abused, MEGA-CORPORATIONS demand tax cuts and BANKS need bail outs, "the fix is in" with the US Legislative and Judicial Branches. When will the American People say "Enough?"

"Thank-you Sir, May I have another?!?" :grr: :nuke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdFLPn30dvQ

[EmilyAnne]

7. Interesting. The general public in the US is rarely referred to as "workers."

We are all called "taxpayers" and "consumers."
There is no respect for the worker, but CEOs reached their positions through sheer brilliance and hard work.
Unions are bad.
Etc.

[leftstreet]

9. I notice the politicians started calling us 'families' rather than 'citizens'

..I noticed it starting back in the Reagan era (I think)

"Working Families"

It's always annoyed the piss out of me.

[EmilyAnne]

10. So true! The term "family" is so loaded in this usage and every time I hear it from a Republican,

it makes my skin crawl.
When they say "family," they mean something very exclusive.
They think they can define "family" according to their political agenda.
There are no gays, no single mothers and no people in hardship who use food stamps in their version of "family."

[glitch]

18. You must have really loved it when they started calling us "consumers" then

Try to remember the last time a rightwinger called us citizens. And not just rightwingers either.

[truedelphi]

8. Because Obama is presiding at a moment in history wherein

So many people are just so glad that Bush is gone that anything else going down matters not a twit.

Plus his wife is pretty and his kids are cute.

So what if the folks at Treasury are complicit with criminals, and Bernanke tells "Sixty Minutes" that the Trillions being printed up won't affect the taxpayers.

At least George W is gone. And if we complain, many feel that George will be back.

So we better shut up real fast or the Repugs will get us!

[Berry Cool]

20. That may be true for some, but not for all.

Some of us are just going to sit tight a little longer and watch things play themselves out. And if we don't like how they are playing, we get to work.

[SammyWinstonJack]

34. Sitting tight a little longer and watching things play themselves out shouldn't even be an option.

We really don't' have time for that, do we? :shrug:

[truedelphi]

40. SammyWJ, that's how I feel too.

Since no one even KNOWS how much Bernanke has printed up and handed over to his friends, it is time to worry now. Senators stated in mid- MArch that 2.9 Trillion had been doled out - but a back door deal gave investment firms and banks some 3.8 Trillion.

Bernanke assured Congress yesterday that the Federal Reserve is independently audited every single year, and that the Fed gets high marks from this audit process.

Well in that case, something stinks to high heaven. If any accounting firm can go in and NOT NOTICE that Hank Paulson was heavily connected to Goldman Sachs, such that Sachs and its allies got favored treatment, and Lehman, Paulson's former rival went down the tubes, then that accounting firm is either stupid and ineffective, or bought out as well.

And Bernanke holds serious ties to Goldman Sachs as well.

Bernanke also assured Congress yesterday that "We do not foresee that happening" when asked about inflation or collapse because of his policies.

Pretty much what Greenspan said back when he was asked if his low interest rate schemes to keep the housing bubble alive and well might eventually cause a collapse.

[Vidar]

12. We need another revolution--this time with no Alexander Hamilton to sneak the tories back in.

[bridgit]

13. Hm, I thought they were still all tripping on Jerry Lewis who knew

[opihimoimoi]

14. The greed has turned arrogant and selfish

[Echo In Light]

21. ...along w/those who actively, enthusiastically participate in their own degradation

[opihimoimoi]

48. Such is Gross IGNORANCE...this shit needs to STOP.....asap

[Mari333]

16. a very nice man in my town

calls me every once in a while to see if I have some work for him to do around my house. sometimes I do, sometimes I dont. He is living in his car when he cannot find a place to crash.
this is a small town, but thats where things are at.
its Michigan after all.
Im sure thats not the only person around here living in their car.
when will the people wake up? I think they know they are treated like scum, they just havent been organized.

[handmade34]

28. I like that...

organize the homeless, if only.. I have a house in Michigan but can't afford to live there so my sister is in the house so she won't be homeless... and I work on the road (homeless- of sorts) to pay for it. Very ironic... thanks for giving the nice man work when you can!

[GoneOffShore]

22. Quel chaine?

[Blue_Tires]

25. did a newscaster say it? or a man on the street?

i just wanted to get some greater context of the quote...

[Karenina]

32. Max Keiser

http://maxkeiser.com/2009/05/01/video-max-keiser-on-chrysler-bankruptcy/

[alarimer]

27. Too much individualism.

We are not members of a community first, we are individuals. And somehow we are all special, just like everyone else.

It's the "screw you, I've got mine" mentality.

And it's also religion. Puritanism in fact, which blames the poor for their problems.

[handmade34]

29. well said!

[Jello Biafra]

30. As Michael Moore discussed....

The difference between the US and France is that in France, the government fears the people. In the US, the people fear the government.

[Echo In Light]

33. Hey, Jello! "Burn, baby, burn!"

;)

[L0oniX]

37. I just watched Sicko again on HBO last night.

[juno jones]

31. Just thinking that myself tonite.

At least in France they respect a cook.

We are treated like shit here. We are disposable. They throw us away when we can no longer work.

It shouldn't have to be this way.

[L0oniX]

35. Watch "Sicko" and you'll pretty much hear the same thing.

[Arugula Latte]

36. There has been a 30 + year propaganda effort.

Hyper jingoism, USA USA # 1!, "best country on Earth," etc. etc. If you complain, you're un-American. Just serve your corporate overlords and shut up about it.

[L0oniX]

38. We are not going to get SPHC or free from the grip of the MIC until we do what they do in France.

[JVS]

39. But in Soviet Russia, dirt treats people like YOU!

:party:

[Initech]

42. Because this is American politics in a nutshell;

" I like what the puppet on the left says."
"The puppet on the right is more to my liking."
"Hey look! There's one guy holding up both puppets!"
"Shut up! Go back to bed America! Your government is in control! Here watch American Idol and get fat and stupid! Here's 500 channels of horseshit. Watch that! Oh and keep eating Taco Bell you fucking morons!"

Seriously I'd love to see a workers revolution in my lifetime but I doubt it will happen at this rate.

[Mudoria]

45. Why are the workers in France protesting?

Aren't they treated like princes over there?

[baldguy]

47. Workers in France protest b/c it scares the shit out of TPTB - and it gets results.

Why aren't the workers in America protesting?

Because it doesn't get results, they'd lose their jobs, be brutalized by the police, be evicted from their homes & have their children taken away.

[JI7]

49. they are treated better BECAUSE they protest and not just take it