July 26, 2022

BA5, the Bottom Line, & Corporate Oligarchy

From today’s Morning Brew:

“BA5 is leading to more OOO messages. Managers everywhere are sending those “I hate to ask…” texts right now, because this summer more workers are calling in sick due to Covid and using their PTO. Between June 29 and July 11, 3.9 million Americans said they didn’t work because they were either sick with Covid or were taking care of someone who had it, according to the Census Bureau—that’s 2.1 million more people than the same period last year.”

That’s quickly getting to bottom line impact.

Finally eliminating COVID-19 could be a litmus test for the full-on corporate rule that I suspect is inevitable as individual trust in the United States governing institutions continues to plummet and cultural divides drive Christian Fascists into power. The next step is either Fascists themselves succeeding at a regional level (hello Confederate American States); or, socially liberal and economic bases succeeding from the Fascist ones (Hello Cascadia).

At some point in the very near future, someone does the cost-benefit analysis and determines that it would be better for business if corporations throw their lobbying weight behind workers having less control over their individual health while while employed at-will by the college of corporations that make up the economic bones & musculature of the United States.

The chilling(?) part is the Neo-liberal US Government is likely to go along with this lobbying because a) the oligarchy of corporations initiated it; and b) they think it’ll be good for polling numbers to finally quash this thing. This all despite even though people have signaled & demonstrated COVID-19 isn’t a factor when it comes to voting.

The question is — are corporations the saviors we want to maintain the status quo?

My gut is “no.” A corporate oligarchy is far more likely to be a plutocracy; and America’s rich are some of the worst in the world.

But, maybe I’m being too myopic? Maybe there’s hope in formalizing America’s rule by corporate oligarchy?

And maybe there’s a scenario where America’s unhealthy obsession with work could be leveraged into the formation of workers cooperatives & unions that replace many in the country’s sick obsession with religion? Corporate rule and the illusion of workers rights could result in new socio-political structures that give people meaning & feed the need to be part of an in-group the same way organized religion does?