One thing that bothers me about riding out the storm is how many businesses think that their employees lives are worth less than making a couple of bucks. Greed in this country is out of control.
During the tropical storm yesterday, the city of Jacksonville had closed down. All city offices were closed and city officials were in the emergency Control Center so they could keep track of problems and get help to those that needed it. They asked that all businesses shut down as it was unsafe to be out on the roads. On and off through the day, most of the bridges in the city were closed due to high winds. (One can not get from the east side of town without going over a bridge, and that is to get to the downtown area.. There are three other bridges to get from the beach area to the main part of the east side of town. Once the winds get to a certain speed, around 35 or 40mph, anyone at the beach or east side of town can not evacuate.) The three bridges from the beach to the east side of town were closed on and off. At one point all were closed. Yet what shocked me was that all too many businesses were open, and expecting their employees to come in.
I have heard from people that work in restaurants and auto parts stores that had to go to work. There was absolutely no business as people were not crazy enough to go out in the storm. Yet employees had to be at their jobs.
The three major malls in the area were open. Hey, it’s a hurricane out there, but I can go to the mall and get pantyhose. People are not stupid enough to do that, yet businesses are stupid enough to expect them to. Come on folks!
When we start believing that making a buck or two is more important than the people that work for us, then we have lost any trace of humanity we may have had. I mean winds were peaking at 50mph or more and the entire area was flooded. Cars were not able to pass all too many areas because of the depth of the water. But the malls had to be open in case someone needed some chewing gum. Duh!!
Bill Maher made the comment that America is run by corporations. And corporations like to make money, which is why they buy so many politicians so they can continue to make money. When gas is $4.00 a gallon and no one is looking into other methods to move cars, then I can all too readily believe this. I mean if the government took on that project with the same urgency that they had when we were racing to the moon, we would have had better cars by now.
Corporate America wants us all to believe that our jobs are more important than our lives. I saw this years ago when I worked for the local NFL team. A cat 4 hurricane was headed right at us. (Actually, it was 2mph less than the cat 5 classification.) They expected it to turn, but it might not. The beaches were evacuated, and my wife and I, along with our dog and cat, left and went to a friend’s in South Carolina. The company was closed, but we could not close down the computers and move them to a secure location because people were there working. I'm glad they felt that their lives, and the lives of their families were not as important as their jobs.
The storm passed us, and did no damage. We had to wait another day to go back because of the storm. (I mean when people left, it took 14 hours to travel from Jacksonville to Valdosta, GA. Normal travel time for that is two hours.) So, because we could not get back the next day, I lost a vacation day. Then I saw a news story of how all the players and their families were able to stay at the stadium. Hmmm, regular employees never got the invite.
Come on corporate America! Get your heads out of your greedy asses! People matter. People’s lives are more important than selling a bottle of soda.
But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.