No, we haven’t hit bottom yet. The world is not as dangerous a place as it was in, say, 1942, nor is it as depressing and dysfunctional as in “The Postman” or “The Hunger Games.”
But we are on the way, and we may have passed the point of no return. Two things happened today which are clear signs that the world is doomed and we’d better start heading for the mountains, stocking up on dried food and bottled water, and practicing our survival skills.
Republican Future
The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed a bill which is called the “Flexibility Act,” probably because it sounds much nicer than “The Screw the Workers Act.” There’s quite a history of that in recent years. Citizens United had nothing to do with citizens, The Patriot Act is the most un-American, reverse patriotic bill ever, No Child Left Behind left entire schools behind, and the Defense of Marriage Act attacks one kind of marriage and doesn’t defend shit.
Now, bearing in mind that every companies contract with it’s workers will vary, the act would make all of the following legal:
- Workers will not get paid for hours that exceed 40 hours per week. That pay will instead go into an employer-controlled pot to be paid later.
- An employer can refuse to allow a worker to take time off to deal with a family member or attend a parent-teacher conference. This is not real flexibility for workers.
- Employers could schedule excessive overtime hours and only offer overtime work to workers who agree to take comp time instead of overtime wages.
- Since unused comp time will not be paid to workers until the end of the year, this amounts to an interest-free loan out of workers’ pockets to the employer.
The other thing is that carbon dioxide levels are now 400 ppm (parts per million). Yeah, I don’t know exactly what it means, either, but Al Gore says it’s way too high, and I’m pretty sure he’s right.
We are doomed, people. Time to start planning your mountain getaways.
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