Let’s say, hypothetically, that you work for a company named Flarido, and things have been tough there over the past few years. The company is in debt, and the new CEO has just come up with a strategy to fix everything.
In a meeting of all of the employees, he lays out the plan. Sacrifices will have to be made - on your part. The company is going to cut how much it pays for your health insurance. You will now be given a worse plan that covers less, makes you pay more, and leaves more of the employees without any insurance.
The new CEO is also going to cut your retirement. Flarido might have told you that you would be getting benefits following your retirement after 35 years working there, but times are tough. No more retirement benefits.
Sadly, that isn’t enough. The company has decided that it really isn’t that important for its employees to know much about their jobs - even the ones that keep the company running smoothly, competitive with the rest of the world, and profitable. So no more on the job training for new employees. They will just have to get by on their own, which the CEO is confident will work out fine. After all, spending time educating the future employees of the company costs money, right? I mean, paying for someone to teach another human cannot possibly pay off in the long run in any measurable way, can it?
There are other things that the CEO plans on trimming, too, like security lights in the parking lot at night, pesky safety measures that cost money but really only save one or two employees’ lives a year, and trash collection by the county. You all will be expected to take three bags of trash home with you every Friday, to dispose of how you see fit. Think of the craft projects!
But the CEO has saved the most brilliant part of his strategy for last. With a voice which barely contains his excitement, he tells you all that his plan to save the company won’t work without the piece de resistance of his plan - his intention to drastically slash the income of the company! In a complex part of the presentation using pie charts, bar graphs, and frequent invocations of the term “Reaganomics”, your new CEO seems to believe that radically reducing your company’s income will somehow improve your financial standing.
As the CEO finishes his presentation, you are puzzled when most of your fellow employees jump to their feet and applaud enthusiastically. You wonder if the refreshments contained some sort of hallucinogen, or simply a narcotic designed to lull everyone into complacency. Sadly, the most likely explanation for your coworkers’ response is that they just aren’t that smart, something you had kind of suspected for years now.
Welcome to the State of Florida, and your new CEO Rick Scott.