Changing "Default values" can change politics

[Armstead]

So many things hve been thrown into the mixmaster lately that it seems that there is an opportunity -- and necessity -- to deal with what could be called "default values."

By default values, I mean the values and positions that the average person instinctively accepts. It could also be called the "path of least resistance" because it is a value that is supported as mainsteram conventional wisdom. It transcends ideology, at least among those who are intellectually honest and have a core of decency.

Over the last 30 years, the GOP/Right Wing/Corporatist Cabal has successfully perverted those default values. But now that the self-destrutive nature of those changes are becoming more evident to more people everyday, we have the opportunity to chnge them for the better.

Here's one example. "Everyone deserves the right to earn a fair day's pay for a fair day's work." That was a default value that was much more strongly ingrained in the zeitgeist until the mid-1970's.

There was a gteneral assumption that everyone who worked a job full time deserved to make at lest enough to cover their basic living expenses.

Of course, it didn't always work that way, and there were people who fell through the cracks. But in a broad sense, the vast majority of the population took that assumption for granted and expected that as part of the basic contract between workers and employers. Most employers also recognized that as an expectation they had to fullfill, for a combination of moral, legal, economic and public-relations purposes.

However, in the 70's and 80's that basic assumption was undermined by the contrary notion that employees were expendable, and that employers should be able to pay as little as they could get away with. They used the CON job of "global competativeness" and other crapola to barrage the population with that message.

As a result, the idea of a "fair days wage for a days work" was replaced by a new value of "People only deserve the least that their employer is willing to pay, and not a penny more."

That led the relentless trashing of workers rights and the very basis of our economy.

Now that the chickens have come home to roost from a generation of deliberate worker abuse, it's time to restore the "fair days wage" as a default value.

IMO, most people are ready for that change, regardless of how they label themselves ideologically. That can open the door to both reforms and a restoration of basic liberalism as a dominant political force.

That's one example. If we tackle the challenge of restoring deent default values, the political process will have to follow.

[Sammy Pepys]

1. The biggest default values...

...are going to be the hardest ones to change, but that's also because they're the most respected.

For instance, with your "hard day's work" example, I think that whole mindset has been replaced by acceptance that certain types of jobs just can't be expected to cover all the bills. People don't view the fastfood/mainstream retail business as a career, unless perhaps you own the shop or maybe you manage the place.

[AX10]

2. The only way to make a true CAREER in fastfood is to own...

the franchise/store. Managers are paid more than enough to take care of themselves, but not family.

[Armstead]

3. The fact that the "good" jobs are disappearing is why that has to change

Retailing used to be a respectable job.

It was not expectred that the clothing salesperson who sells you a suit should be forced to live in a shabby motel room while the owner of the company is worth $100 billion.

If America is going to sacrifice the equivalent of blue-collar working class jobs, then the new generation of jobs that replace them should at least pay enough for people to live on.

I believe most people feel that way, whether they personally are caught in that bind or not. It's only the dumbass freepers or the piggies at the top who would not recognize that as both basic decency and as economic common sense.

[sutz12]

4. Welcome to Victorian England...

Where the haves can fawn over themselves that they 'support the economy' by employing people.....as maids and servants.

High priced CEO's getting 8 figure bonuses for shipping jobs oversees should be drawn and quartered.

I wonder how many $50k/yr jobs could be kept in the country if they recanted on one $50 million bonus for the execs.