Doug says:
American society is filled
with anxiety and fear - fear of homelessness and
failure . . . it's one of our
> foundational
> principles of social organization.
Right. It's called market discipline.
The other day Mayer Brown, one of the biggest law firms in town (Chicago), chopped about 80 (I think) partners who weren't making enough rain. This insecurity is becoming the norm even at that level. At least three other big law firms in town that I know of have done the same, and this after the first one (Sidley Austin) got zapped with age discrimination lawsuit when it did that. These guys and gals are pretty well fixed and probably reasonably employable at smaller firms, and they're not going to end up in a cardboard box, but senior partnership used to be a job with the security of university tenure. Anyway someone at the firm said that in addition to increasing per partner profits, this move gives everyone renewed incentive work hard -- like billing 3,000 hours a year isn't working hard enough!
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Mar 5, 2007, at 11:29 AM, Chris Doss wrote:
>
> >> In what developed capitalist country is the
> > population terrorized?
> >
> > All of them.
> >
> > Have you ever witnessed an eviction? A
> deportation?
> > Been to a prison?
> >
> > --
> >
> > Silly hyperbole. No wonder the left is so
> > self-marginalized.
> >
>
> "Terrorized" is too strong a word, but American
> society is filled
> with anxiety and fear - fear of homelessness and
> failure, fear of the
> terrorists, fear of all those Mexicans crossing the
> border. Maybe
> you've been away too long, but it's one of our
> foundational
> principles of social organization.
>
> Doug
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