What is really wrong with America

OK, I have turned 60 and, like most people, with age comes the beginnings of wisdom born of perspective garnered over the years. However, sometimes the obvious is hiding in plain sight and a quirky event brings it into the light.

What do I think is wrong with America? No one cares a damn anymore about  keeping their job — there are more worker bees than ever. Prisoners of their credit card debt, mortgages and car payments, no one dares take a risk and speak up.

We have a stepstool made by Rubbermaid Commercial Products, about a year old, and the internal shaft in one of the castor wheels broke. We sent two e-mails to Rubbermaid asking how to get a replacement part. No response. So I called their commercial products division in Winchester, Va.; 25 minutes.

No joy, they delegated the replacement parts business to another company called Interstate Wrapping Product (IWP) in Illinois. I called them; 20 minutes.

They can supply the part, $7.55 for something that is made by machines, probably in China, with less than 12 cents of plastic. The shipping charge is $12.10 for something that would cost under $1 to mail. Oh, and they do not accept orders for less than $50, so there is a $9 “small order handling fee.�

One wheel, failed quality control at Rubbermaid, total cost? About an hour of my effort and a charge of $28.65 or about 40 percent of a new stool. Wal-Mart sells a Chinese knock off for under $20. Guess where I will spend money?

u      u      u

OK, what is the real problem here? The people I talked to on the phone are not fighting for their jobs.

The employee at IWP completely agreed the price is exorbitant, the handling fee a rip-off and the special small order fee an insult. But she could do nothing.

The employee at Rubbermaid, first directing me to IWP for parts, agreed that Rubbermaid used to stand behind their products but that she was “just doing her job.�

Net result? Rubbermaid has lost one customer and I will advise anyone else to avoid them as well. As for IWP, no reason to deal with them, ever. Of course, that is my advice to all you reading this column, too.

So what is the issue? The issue is that both these employees stand to lose their jobs because sales will dwindle, efficiency and customer relations are tossed out the window and — you know this is true — no VP will ever have to give up his or her Mercedes or stock options while they lay off the peons who work on the lower rungs.

So the issue is that no one lower down feels empowered to make the company better and, what is worse, those in their ivory towers think that their pricing structures, loading overhead amortization to beef up revenues, will somehow go unnoticed by the consumer.

Between their shifting of American manufacture overseas, reducing quality and overloading price points they are killing the last vestiges of American manufacturing business. Employees are whining about “doing their job� and “doing what I’m told,� all the while their jobs are eroding and being priced out of existence.

u      u      u

In Germany, the only people who do not have to make an appointment with the CEO, chairman or director of a company are the shop foreman, the chief engineer and the plant manager. They have direct access. Why? Because companies like Mercedes know that without those three being happy, the company’s long-term prospects are doomed. And this upward communication trend is endemic throughout Germany, Japan, Korea and, recently, China.

So what is wrong with us in America? Why can’t we grow up and change? As things stand, those in charge have no way of listening to those who are hands-on, on the front lines. The only reports they get are in the form of budgets and quarterly reports that they hardly read. They tell people what they want and expect them to do exactly that, no more, no less.

Meanwhile, employees know they are worker bees, toeing the line, afraid to speak up and save their own jobs. Step out of line, tell management what’s wrong, and you become the messenger that’s easy to get rid of. Whistle-blowers are hated in America. Constructive whistle-blowers are misunderstood and labeled as bucking trends that management is “sure of.� So very “sure of� right up until they lay off another slew of American workers and ship jobs overseas.

u      u      u

So what’s wrong with America? It is not the management that is 100 percent at fault; they were taught in business school how it is (or how Wall Street wants it) done in America and, anyway, they have golden parachutes to protect them, so they get complacent.

No, the fault lies with the worker who knows better, the worker who allows the rot to continue, the worker who helps crate up machine parts and ship them to Mexico, China and Korea and, never least, the worker who stays silent hoping they will have a job to meet their debts instead of taking pride in the job they have and forcing American management and Wall Street to their senses.

Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.