In the hands of a pathological madman

November 14

GUEST: Tom Midgley, long time activist and former president of the Alliance@IBM workers' group, talks about how IBM has dealt with its workers over the past several decades, putting profits over the interests of its American employees.

IBM cuts nearly 700 jobs in Dutchess County

We have all seen the shift from workers being valued to corporate kleptocracy. There was a time when IBM employees felt proud of their company and secure in their plans for healthcare and retirement. In the late 1970s all that changed. Those at the top abandoned their previous "responsibility" to their employees and went for the money. Slashing tens of thousands of jobs during the 1990s soon morphed into sending work overseas. A decade later, foreign IT workers were being given guest visas to work at half the wages here in America.

All this was facilitated by loosening governmental regulations. Congress and the President didn't have to be fooled by the likes of Bill Gates making the bogus case for cheap foreign IT workers. Our elected officials were already on the payroll of Big Tech.

The biggest rewards for destroying US jobs, however, went to the very people who planned the transition. The salaries of IBM CEOs skyrocketed, starting with Louis V. Gerstner, who according to The New York Times, "received $4.8 million in salary and bonus, plus stock options and other incentive pay with a current value of more than $13 million." And that was his first year.

Workers' lives get desperate and CEO's make out like the bandits they have become. Will this type of income disparity eventually bring down our democracy? The fact that our country is now in the hands of a pathological madman should answer that question.