MSNBC this morning, another anchor talking with nauseatingly manufactored sympathy to an unemployed person, dripping with condescension as he says "good luck to you and your family" - - the man being interviewed looking like he would like to leap through the screan and yell at the self-assured anchor "lets hope things get better for you real soon".
Real soon. To those of us that have been unemployed at times, "real soon" would be by noon, anytime after that it is agonizingly too late, "real soon" to the anchor probably means in the next couple of months, a tortuously long time for someone with a family.
That is not why I wrote this diary; the reason this diary is here is b/c of what preceded that interview, an interview of a "placement" Executive, follow me over the jump to see what he had to say.
Its all good! The "placement person" - - I didn't catch his name or company because it was only at the end that I started to get angry enough to listen closely enough to write it up.
This man runs a company that "places" unemployed people as "independent contractors" into companies that are experiencing growth and it is "wonderful." Companies often have to hire people fast for temporary projects and love the "flexibility" of hiring these unemployed people as independent contractors who generally do not work at the company but rather work from their homes, anywhere in the country and thus it is a win - win!!!! Unemployed people get work from all over the country (Many of them turn into long term independent contractors!) and companies have the flexibility to hire people quickly and adjust to the market place, without having to . . . ummmm, "commit" much of anything, but anyway OMGZZ isn't this great!!!!
The anchor did his sliver of "analysis" that actually this wasn't actually "that" great, becuase the Independent Contrators had no long term security, no benefits, no unemployment insurance, no place to "go to work" and interact with people - but, get this, he didn't ask or confront the executive with the winning smile about those "not so great things" merely recited them and then flatly stated, the awful truth: "But I guess beggars can't be choosers."
The winning smile didn't move. Didn't have to, it wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact, a statement that went much deeper than a shitty little interview on a Friday summer morning. The man with the smile, he knows that we are begging, just like the guy who came on after him, so he can smile and smile and smile, b/c he is going to take 10-20% of what the company might have paid YOU, to organize you for ready projects as an Independent Contractor, and even though the job sucks, the pay sucks.
But he knows how many people are looking for anything, he knows its the new normal, he knows its intentional, unemployment of 9-10% is optimal now, keep us hordes hungry. Under this scenario a company can run with a "skeleton crew" ensuring the highest salaries for the executives, and when actual work needs to be done, the don't "hire" they contract with "winning smile guy" who provides bodies for $14/hr. And smile guy has to tell you "companies are really excited about this, this is the future growth area, they like having "fresh ideas" and "flexibility" " I bet they do.
BUT: They can ONLY do this because, as our pretentious anchor noted; Beggars can't be choosers. Welcome to the Conservative Economy.