World wide recession and no real answers

Open letter

Open letter

To:

• the Governments of the G 20 summit
• the Provincial Governments of Canada
• the Federal Government of Canada
• President Barack Obama of the United States of America
• Manufacturing companies around the world
• Leading newspapers around the world
• House of Representatives of the United States of America
• Senate of the United States of America
• The " Big Three" Automotive Manufacturing Corporations
• Citizens and legal immigrants of the U.S.A. and Canada

To whom it may concern: 

The issues I am addressing to you are most likely just as serious as the Great Depression was to the whole world. Please read this carefully - I leave it up to you to take appropriate actions.

Remember, North American countries were considered the strongest economical and military powers in the world; this includes Europe and Japan on economical terms. Now, if we are to be honest with ourselves, we are nothing but a shadow of what we used to be. North American countries were considered the lands of milk and honey where hardworking people could make their dreams become true. Now these countries have become countries of "not haves"; dreams turned into nightmares and the people of those countries struggling to make ends meet. Worse yet, some don't make it at all because of having been laid off.  There are, in fact, numerous reasons for that.

We allowed our governments to do as they pleased - remember, you have to vote every so often, and then you have to keep your mouth shut. Protests were not given the attention they deserved.

Weallowed greedy individuals to feed on our hard-earned money and, at the same time, drive our economies into the ground. It all started by signing "Free Trade" into Law, allowing greedy executives of once financially healthy manufacturing businesses to make even more profit on the backs of the working class citizens in the U.S.A. and Canada. With the signing of the "Free Trade Agreement" into Law, jobs disappeared from the US and Canada into Mexico and China, where wages are ridiculously low and the profit margins are rising. It was certainly very pleasant to hear" everyone can own a house". The reality is that mislead or uninformed people who did get a house are now unable to pay their mortgages, and have lost everything. Foreclosure is the magic word, and all because their jobs were outsourced, became obsolete, or the workers were fired.

Do our representatives cut their income to pay their share in restructuring our economy bringing it back to where it used to be? Nonsense! With blatant disregard for their country's citizens, they take whatever they can get their hands on, after approving their own raises themselves!

 The bottom of the barrel isn't even visible, yet, and this situation will remain so for quite some time!

Yet, our governments allow millions of dollars in "bonus pay" to executives who caused this dilemma in the first place! The remaining managements, blind to what needs to be done because of their apathy established over years on the job, simply can NOT think outside the box- looking to the inside instead. They are inside looking out, unable to realize what is needed to get up and operating profitably again." We have always done it this way.... We never did it another way.... And, who are you to tell us what we miss to make us better?" seem to be the common terms to stay in the jobs that paid them so well over the past years while achieving only minimal improvements, if any at all!

By the way, have you heard of any lay-offs at military suppliers for tanks and other vehicles or ammunition? If we can follow golf ball hit by a prominent golf player via satellite from outer space and locate its exact position plus or minus one millimeter, why don't we know where Osama Bin Laden is hiding?

I never was and probably never will be a member of a union, but I bow my head before the unions (UAW and CAW) whose membership sacrificed one billion dollars per year to their employers in cost-cutting. But it seems to be of no real value as Chrysler and Ford salaried management won't agree to the same, saying it's not enough.

Ford, to date, is the only one of the "Big Three" who did not apply for any government loans. Maybe Ford diversified their operations in time?

What about Nortel? A company in bankruptcy protection gets an "ok" from the courts to pay out 60 million dollars to executives in bonuses to the ones that did a "good job" in restructuring the company - the lay off of thousands of employees!

Let's take it a step further, into the U.S.A., shall we? As today's broadcast (April 3rd, 2009) tells us, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pay 210 million US dollars in bonuses to whom and for what? Both companies were given monies in the first place along with banks like Citibank and AIG , because this is where the retirement monies are tied up for the House of Representatives and the Senate!

Why did President Obama receive a new limo? Was the previous one no longer good enough? Why is the entire motorcade being flown to countries President Obama visits? Wouldn't you think the countries being visited have just as good vehicles to protect President Obama? Was it ever disclosed what tax payers have to pay for this extravagance of President Obama? Didn't he once say "I will do my share"?

We allow cheap vehicle imports of fuel-efficient vehicles into our countries since we seem to be too stupid to develop some of our own? Those imports are better equipped with efficient standard features, while we have to pay extra for the same comforts. Isn't it obvious why our vehicle sales declined over the past years to an all time low with Toyota overtaking GM's lead in sold vehicles in the whole world? It's simply because better equipped, more fuel-efficient vehicles from Japan, Korea -and soon India- cost a lot less for the consumer. Why do our profit margins have to be so high instead of offering vehicles at an affordable price? The answer is, again, very simple and everybody who has common sense can answer it - greed! Who cares about our population and it's workforce as long as the greedy have what they want?

  Rick Wagoner of GM received 200 million dollars just to leave GM as its CEO! All three companies now trade for just pennies per share but already have received tremendous amounts of loan monies.

The U.S. Government now owns a huge amount of shares in those companies. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the largest mortgage companies in the world, remember? A bunch of con-artists go free and with a financial cushion which allows them to live a worry-free life and never have to work again - ever! This also applies for their next generations to have an entirely secure and cushioned lifestyle for as long as they live.

The backlash of the so-called bail out could become more serious than the Great Depression of the 1930's. Why did extremists gain unconditional support during those terrible times? Everyone had open ears and an open mind to change - they had nothing to loose!

Fight the beginnings and not when the milk is already spilled! Do we really want to give extremists the ability to take advantage of this economical recession to drive us to another disaster following the 1930's?

I am not claiming to have all the answers, but I did have a flawless record of successes until I disclosed my medical condition to my employer. The result was that I was fired after six weeks of disclosure while working as a contracted employee with one of the "Big Three" for nearly four years. Doubling- even tripling- the outputs on straight time with the same amount of workforce, not even eliminating a single one, wasn't a reason to keep me on staff. I certainly knew what I was doing, as well as why and just disclosing "gender identity disorder" was reason enough to fire me. Picture this - in the same year, I was the only one to get a raise, but was fired for "lack of performance". Isn't there something wrong with that picture?

A well known local subsidiary of a vehicle component manufacturer (in the town where I now live) broadcasted on TV that they have no idea how to find a solution to save their operations. They did not even return my voicemail I left with the General Manager, even though I offered a FREE analysis of their operations.

This is NOT the way to get out of this mess that unscrupulous executives put us into!

The merging of Provincial Sales Tax with Government Sales Tax in Canada is nothing but a recovering of the bail out money from Canadian consumers, as was the introduction of Income Tax which was deemed to be a temporary measure to pay for the war measures of WW II! Are we still in WW II??

Temporary measures usually last the longest, don't they? 

I do not wish for anonymity. Print my name below this "Open Letter"!

Alice Avonlea 
Published Author 
And
Former Automotive Engineer

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