This diary is a repost from my personal blog on myspace, therefore it's written for a more general and less politically sophisticated audience than is generally found on DKos. www.myspacedotcom/jetpilot1776
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My company has laid off at least 60 pilots today. Because of my seniority number, I'm keeping my job for the time being. My co-pilot this trip was not so lucky. They had airline tickets home waiting for him when we landed here in Raleigh-Durham.
Depending on how many are actually furloughed today, it's possible I could be demoted to co-pilot.
The company says the layoffs are "economy based."
Since the beginning of 2008, over a million Americans have lost their jobs. That's just this year.
The recession and possible depression we are in is DIRECTLY attributable to the economic policies of the Republicans. People like George Bush and Alan Greenspan and Phil Gramm and John McCain have removed nearly all meaningful government oversight and regulation from corporate America. Their catastrophic "theory" was that regulation and oversight were not needed because the "invisible hand" of competition and free markets would keep the markets stable.
This is exactly what happened in the 1920's, when the Republicans of that era did the same thing--leading to the Great Depression. Democrats share some of the blame, of course, for not more strongly opposing the dismantling of the system of checks and balances that were built into our economic system during the New Deal. But it is the Republicans who must bear most of the blame, for it is they who have so long worshipped at the altar of Free Markets and Less Regulation.
Even now, George Bush is feverishly dismantling environmental regulations designed to protect our air and water and wildlife from the greed and pollution of the corporations. Who cares about climate change when there's another few billion to made off the backs of the working class?
What happens when markets are not regulated, when corporations are allowed to do as they please--untroubled by government (read: the People) oversight? It should be obvious. They disregard all considerations that don't apply directly to the next month's or the next quarter's bottom line. Outsourcing. Off-shoring. Reduction in quality of service and product. Lack of safety and job-security at the work place. Layoffs. Pay cuts. Pollution. The list goes on and on.
Economic regulation and oversight were put in place for a reason. To protect the markets from greed and incompetence. To insure that workers had rights. To protect our fragile environment. In short, to protect the people of the United States' long term economic security.
George Bush and his criminal cohorts have destroyed everything they have touched. His administration has been the most disastrous in the history of the country.
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UPDATE
Turns out that 104 pilots from my company were laid off today. That's 20% of our pilot force. An undisclosed number of scheduling and office staff have been layed off from our headquarters.