So what was that Corporatism post about

What more and more young people see

It came to mind this last Christmas when we realized we were out of tags for last minute wrapping.  So I went out to the stores, knowing it was a long shot.  No doubt this happened to us late Christmas eve, right?  No.  It was a few days before Christmas Eve.  So why the trouble?  Because, just as stores begin putting up the first Christmas paraphernalia before football season properly begins each year, so they begin taking down their Christmas paraphernalia sooner and sooner just the same.

The first time I saw this was way back in the late 90s when we were still living in Louisville.  Being me, I had a few last minute things to get.  It was 1998 I believe, when our second son had been born.  I went out to buy what I needed and noticed that the stores were already packing up.  As one who had made a life long habit of shopping late on Christmas Eve, that was the first time I recalled seeing the decorations being removed in force before Christmas proper.

Over the years, it has crept slowly on. Sometimes there might be a rebound.  Some years it might seem closer to Christmas Eve that they are removing things, only to see the following year be even earlier. Of course putting up Christmas decorations ridiculously early isn't anything new.  The 1974 It's the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown addresses that very thing. 

But the symbolism of tearing things down, even as - from a traditional Christian perspective - the holiday has yet to formally begin, seems to me symbolic of the problem with our modern corporate structure.  In the days of consumerism or commercialism, corporations at least had to pretend they cared.  Oh your average person of even limited intelligence could guess it was always about the money.  But commercial enterprises had to put on a good show.  They had to entice.  To sell.  To put up a good front. To occasionally pander to the wishes of the all important consumer. 

But today?  Not really.  They don't even pretend to care.  In the old days, they had to put on a good face and act like it was important to appease the consumer.  The customer, as they used to say, was always right.  But today?  Nowhere close.  And I fear it isn't just the trappings of a Christmas holiday that is on the block.  It's anything really, and not even apologizing or trying to excuse. It's just 'we do it to make billions, so suck on it.'  Whether it be the consumers, the employees, the national well-being, the common weal, it matters not.  

I had to go to a local auto parts store recently.  I stood in line for over half an hour because there was only one guy working in the whole store.  He apologized to everyone as we made our way to the register.  Then someone in front of me asked him why he was alone.  Apparently they just cut staff and hours.  Not that they're hurting.  I looked it up and nothing about the company tanking or anything.  In fact, it has had a financial turnaround.  Apparently, that includes closing stores and cutting staff and hours to save money, at least for the uppers.   Does it hurt the customer experience?  Sure.  Does it decrease the quality of service? You bet. Does the corporation appear to care?  No more than it does putting on airs about Christmas time any longer than financially needed, no matter what people might want. You might say it obviously is no big deal.  The company in question has seen a financial turnaround, so apparently the consumer isn't bothered.  Or in our neck of the woods, there aren't many alternatives.   

Yet that's the big thing I see.  On the short term, it does appear corporations can almost flip everyone the bird today and people just keep coming back for more.  But what of longer term consequences?  Conservatives are running around with their hair on fire as poll after survey after study finds more and more youngsters up and coming are at least open to the possibility of socialism, Marxism or even by name communism!  How can this be?  How can they be so stupid?

Because of this.  Somewhere along the line corporations found a way to game the system; an out from the old 'it leads to competition and innovation and creates wealth' paradigm.  Giving less for more, lowering quality, slashing quantity, and all while shellacking the consumer and frequently screwing over their own employees willy-nilly makes it somewhat easy to explain the average younger person's skepticism about the bountiful blessings of the private sector and that all important Capitalism experience.  

In fact, I also hear a lot of people harp on your Gen-Z types as being lazy and entitled and having no loyalty to their employers. But that door swings both ways.  As I said here, what used to be the season for Christmas bonuses and office parties has become, in many sectors, when employees cower down with targets on their backs.  And seniority doesn't cut it.  A fellow I talked to a few years ago said that in many companies today, seniority and experience make you feel like a prime target. After all, ditch you and a couple others, consolidate your positions, and hire some newbie for a fraction of the cost.  But doesn't that cause a glitch in quality and harm the potential consumer?  See 'pack up Jingle Bells whatever the shmuck consumer base thinks' above. 

One of the reasons we have Trump is best described by my oldest son:  Trump is the wrong answer to all the right questions.  And those questions involve a growing segment of the population feeling that things are getting worse, not better; that more and more are being left behind; that fewer in our younger generations have hope for the future - and worse than anything, our leadership and institutions including, but not limited to, corporate America don't seem to care.  In fact, until 2016, it increasingly appeared that they didn't even have to pretend to care.  Which is why, as my one son likes to say, the biggest booster for communism today is corporate America.  Will it change since the era of Donald Trump?  Perhaps.  But it better change, or the unthinkable for so many of us older folks will become the acceptable option going forth for the younger ones.