Between Posts

In re-reading "Hiring the Worker," a seminal book on management and human resources history published in 1916, just prior to the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918, I came across the following passage that has tremendous implications for the way our various governments (city, county, state and federal) have reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic: "What famine and black plague were to the middle ages, so is unemployment to the modern industrial world." The statement was made in a report by Professor Joseph Willits. The professor had been commissioned by the City of Philadelphia to do a year-long study of workplace turnover and unemployment in Philadelphia's burgeoning manufacturing industries. Because so much work was seasonal, turnover was extremely high, especially during the winter. As a result, workers suffered greatly. This high workforce turnover and its accompanying social disruption was common in many American cities of the time. Arguably, by many accounts it was the...

Have you noticed how chillingly like Communism and Socialism are both the promises and actual results of lockdowns and remote working? All -- lockdowns, WFH,  Communism and Socialism -- have their seeds in the false promises of Nirvana (aka Shangri-la, Utopia, the "New Norm"). And all share the same tragic consequences when tried: mass paranoia, fear, loneliness, substance abuse, loss of hope, depression, suicide, broken relationships, shoddy work results and poor productivity; in short, everything except what was promised and predicted. The False Prophets of Covid-19 Better to look at the sordid results of the history of Socialism and Communism than to buy into the promises of the false prophets of Covid-19. The New Norm is not a new concept born of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is an old Socialist concept that is constantly looking for an excuse, a rationale for implementation, and Covid-19 is just the newest in a long line of rationalizations. So let's make a simple and pl...

"Nor is the matter altered when we come nearer home and contemplate the heathen masses which crowd the narrow streets of our great cities. It is one of the signs of our times that the "slums," as we call them, have come forth to the observation of the world. And as they are brought more fully to public view the sight is not encouraging. Here the Christian worker comes to close quarters with vice and misery. Here his heart sinks within him at the manifest magnitude of the task that is set before him. Here he is gravely tempted to despair as he realizes more and more sharply the inadequacy of human methods and human powers to reach the root of the evil whose dreadful fruits daily smite him in the face. How easy it is to let the great hope die within us and seek to content ourselves with some lesser endeavor! This immense mass of corrupting humanity — we cannot lift it bodily to a higher plane. Shall we not be satisfied to attack the fringes of the evil, and be content wit...