Tough Times

Times are tough, apparently.  The economy is under-performing and unemployment is high so employers are taking the time to have tough negotiations with their employees and reduce their costs.

It makes sense, wage costs go up in good times and come down in bad times.  Or at least they go up more quickly in good times and freeze in bad times which is the same thing since the value of money declines constantly.


One of many problems with this is that tough labour negotiations, whether with a collective bargaining unit or with individual employees, hurt morale.  Employers and employees really should have a symbiotic relationship rather than being at war with one another.  It is tough for employees to realize that their wages are being lowered because their employers our of stupidity, short-sightedness or political expediency and so they feel it is being done out of malice.  That doesn't help productivity.

I shouldn't be so negative about this, I mean, I'm negative about everything, but in reality the economy and good times and bad times go in cycles and things will get better.  It's just hard for me to see things getting better any time soon.  The society that made my parent's generation rich, being of no more use to that generation, was discarded in favour of a society that would keep them rich at the expense of their children.  It may take more than one generation to recover, if current nations manage to recover at all.