Last week on the cover of Time magazine ("An AOL Time Warner Company"), was a photo of a man holding a microscopic-size check, emphasizing their point about a continuing and accelerating trend of American workers' wages going down, down, down. The cover story mentioned several individual cases, including one man who worked at a major company earning $100,000 a year, until a few years ago during a round of cost-cutting when his pay was shrunk to $90,000 per annum, and about two years ago during another cost-cutting purge his annual take was reduced yet again, this time to $70,000. Other Americans have seen their pay go down by about 50% in some extreme cases, not to mention an increasing number of companies ceasing to pay overtime. It was also noted that some service jobs have been following manufacturing jobs out of our shores (and in some cases, to low-wage states such as Idaho). All of which have had a negative impact on consumer spending in many areas. And just as everyone's favorite out-of-control Goliath, the RIAA, has a suitcase full of excuses to justify indulging in their most fascistic, Stalinist-style impulses, then so do these multinational corporations for their exporting jobs out of the United States and to low-wage slave states (the two most notorious in this realm being "competing in the global marketplace" and, in the post-9/11 period, "uncertainty over the shaky economy").

In addition, Lou Dobbs, CNN (another AOL-TW unit) business reporter and syndicated columnist, has also been sounding the alarm about these pernicious effects brought upon us by the "free-trade" racketeers. And most of what our lawmakers have been cooking up have only made it worse for workers: notably, rules enabling corporations discretion over such matters as family leave, overtime, year-end bonuses, etc. All those in the media who've mentioned this trend have brought up an initiative in the Senate to address this chronic problem. Ironically, it has been introduced by the same individual – everybody's favorite stooge of the multinational entertainment-media complex, Sen. "On-The-" 'Fritz' Hollings – who, some years ago, sought to foist the anti-democratic, anti-consumer, anti-technology, socialist-style "CBDTPA" down everybody's throats.

And while everybody has presented their theories on the slide in CD sales in the past few years (i.e. the massive decline in quality of the "music," the king's-ransom prices for a CD with only one or two good pieces in the entire set, the RIAA's increasingly worsening treatment of consumers), quite a few have cited "the economy" as a factor. And given this trend of exporting jobs and shrinking wages, the destructive consequences of "free trade" – not only to the consumer, but to America itself – cannot and should not be ignored. As an aside, it was noted that the father of one of the college students who'd been cleaned out by the RIAA's punitive vendetta had been unemployed for about a year. Talk about kicking someone while he/she is down. . . .

And this writer will predict something else as well: While DVD sales and rentals went up the roof last year, I say it will not last, as this long-standing decimation of workers' wages will continue to take their toll. I don't know if it will be next year, or the year after, or the year after that. But mark my words, DVD's will one day follow CD's in a downward sales curve . . . and the ancient, fossilized MPAA, removed as they are from the real world, will, like the RIAA, blame their predicament on "piracy" (as if they don't already!) and further accelerate their push for socialist-style Big Government intrusion into digital technology (as if they haven't already!), and continue their agenda of disenfranchising consumers. And given the reduction of American workers' wages to the level of workers in Third World countries, it really will amount to a disenfranchisement.

One more point: Some months ago, the RIAA had fingered countries such as China, Singapore and Malaysia as being among the chief culprits in perpetuating music piracy. It is countries like these where previously high-paying jobs enjoyed by Americans are flying to (with workers there only being paid a mere fraction of what Americans used to earn) – and to whose level we are systematically being brought down to by the "free-trade" engineers. Not to mention that a lot of those countries are, by and large, closed societies. Which we are also being "engineered" towards.

Something to think about . . .

I was recently informed, along with my fellow co-workers, that my company is running a "pilot" program to outsource some simple service functions to a new office we are opening in India. We have been told that this will only involve 60-75 positions within our office (we currently employ about 900) and that these positions will be made available through attrition.

In a cruel display of irony, our bosses have told us this is being done in a "cost cutting" effort to preserve our jobs.

Although the "powers that be" within our company assure us that this is as far as they plan to go with this program, we all know where it will lead and now we are all wondering how long we will have our jobs.

I stopped buying CDs long ago as a matter of principle -- not because I couldn't afford them. However, if our fears are realized within the next couple of years, I will not be able to afford the few DVDs I buy periodically.

How sad, that in an effort to maximize profit, these big corporations will cause the unemployment rate in the US to skyrocket.

Who will be left to buy their products and services then?

Certainly not the workers in India. They will be "pirating" all of their content because of the low wages and high cost of living over there.

You may also note that retailers complained that this past Christmas season was the worst in over 30 years.

"Do-you-want-fries-with-that?" jobs = no money to spend on Chinese manufactured goods.

Someday, we're going to get into a real war with a serious opponent and we won't be able to replace our equipment quickly enough because we don't have the industrial capacity anymore. We'd better never piss off the Chinese.

wondering who the author is/ source- thanks

I have watched the American society devalue the appreciation of the arts of science and math to the point where barely anyone knows anything more than what goes on past the "power" button or "ignition key" on the things they use every day.

There is no value here in being "smart". Thus, all the trades will go where it is.

Ultimately, we will pay the price in dependancy on others for everything we do and own.

QUOTE: How sad, that in an effort to maximize profit, these big corporations will cause the unemployment rate in the US to skyrocket.

Who will be left to buy their products and services then?

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It's oddly strange to see many of the predictions of Karl Marx borne out in today's newspaper headlines.

The economy is the worst it's been in years precicely because of all these "cost-cutting" manuevers that leave a high rate of unemployment and low wages.

Corporate America needs to learn, as Henry Ford did, that you need to pay people at least the wage nessessary for them to buy your product.

Otherwise, you have an economy of overabundance. Supply remains high, demand remains low. (Not because people do not want the products, but because they cannot afford them)

The RIAA is a particularly thick-headed version of corporate America - they pay their employees (the artists) nothing, yet expect to get sales of $20 per unit on an entertainment cost.

Ridiculous.

It galls me that the RIAA's members wouldn't consider lowering prices in order to maximize profits. If music sales really are down, then it makes more sense to cater to the new demand, rather than to try to pass laws that prevent people from going elsewhere.

lame.