Geez, Joe - talk about quaint concepts

Honor, the dignity of labor, a sense of personal ethics and social conscience are just old concepts that seem to generate little more than a smirk anymore - not only are they hopelessly antiquated, they're actually regarded as a sure sign of personal weakness and an impediment to any real financial success

What has happened in the workplace in the last 30 years goes beyond what anyone could have ever believed would come to pass - I can only imagine my late father's anger and disgust were he alive today

We've really regressed back to the accepted business and labor practices of the late 19th century's robber barons - and all the advances that were made over the course of almost 100 years to better the lot of working men and protect them from exploitation and abuse by their employers have been wiped out by the push for business deregulation started by Reagan in the '80's

Whatever monies the middle class had been able to put aside at one time when their rights were protected and wages rose have been siphoned off by a deregulated banking system whose most profitable practices today were once illegal

As I see it, the real problem isn't incompetence, it's part of the current climate of overwhelming disrespect and disregard in the workplace that filters through everyday life

Competence and pride in one's work, whatever that work may be, are really one and the same and that was once recognized and rewarded with a good living wage

Today, incompetence in one's work seems to be a form of passive-aggressive behavior against substandard wages as much as anything else

I agree that there are mean, greedy people. That's part of the human population's attitude/personality bell curve. And some of those people, for sure, run a business. But I believe, and my experience backs it up for me, that the huge portion of that bell curve is populated with those of normal to exceptional capacity for compassion, love, and the good qualities of human nature. And many of those people run a business. Again, from my experience, the larger a business is, the more impersonal it is, the more compartmental it is, and the more prone it is to hire replaceable employees who do routine, prescribed duties. Whether it has evolved naturally, or through a combination of Henry Ford's invention of the production line/plus the ensuing collective bargaining/and the ensuing government regulation mix, or all of the above, large businesses that are mostly populated with normally compassionate beings have to run on a highly regulated, bottom line, competitive basis. This process has led, in those societies who employ it, to a rise in common standard of living. And that standard has become so habitual and expected, that instead of comparing how relatively rich we have become compared to our ancestors and to third world standards, we compare our condition to our neighbor, co-worker, boss, or to our own better times. Have we lost some "human" quality in the work place? Compared to what?