[Growler]

The issue is what it was inevitably to come to: Investors put their money into businesses that will reward them with dividend payments for the business' success. In order to maximize the business' success, the decision-makers in the business must find a way to max out profit and eliminate costs as much as possible. The easiest costs to eliminate are payroll: it costs a lot to pay knowledgeable people a competitive wage to keep them in your employ, and it costs a lot to provide that person with the benefits necessary to keep them healthy enough to make you money. Instead, hire inferior employees at a cheap rate, provide abysmal service, and replace the now-fired employee with another. If you can eliminate the position entirely, or outsource it to another nation for pennies on the dollar, then the shareholders will be happy with the margin and cash the dividend checks.

I've said it for years: You can't expect Cadillac service for McDonald's wages.

What would change if we employed people who were experts in their fields, for wages commensurate with their abilities? What would happen if, instead of sloppily-completed building projects that are then mired in punitive litigation, and instead have a project that is completed with pride and quality?

Sorry, I'm in a rotten, rotten mood.