California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: April 18, 2000
Faculty on the Site.

On Friday, 21 April 2000, Cliff Parks wrote:

How is crime defined in America? A good definition could be found in Webster's dictionary...."an act or the commission of an act that is forbidden and that makes the offender liable to punishment by that law." When we think about crime we generally think about crime in this context. Webster expands it definition by intimating that a  crime can be committed against humanity.....atrocity- as (extermination or enslavement) that is directed especially against an entire population or part of a population on specious grounds and without regard to individual guilt or responsibility even on such grounds"

Discussing downsizing Gordon in his introduction to Fat and Mean ...".states The American  economy has been growing for fifteen years but the vast majority of Americans have not been sharing in the harvest. Most U.S. families have been struggling to make ends meet and many have failed."

What is the criteria defining the "vast majority of Americans" or "most U.S. families" the one criteria that is most plausible is the economic criteria. The vast majority of Americans fall within the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution. The point that I'm making is that we have a built in definition for a crime that has been committed against humanity with impunity. Our economic system in this sense can be characterized as an Auto-Poeitic system. The bottom 80 percent of the income distribution can definitely be considered a portion of the population that is enslaved and in pursuit of the American dream. Has been and will continue to be unless economic policy drastically changes to correct this and meaningful discourse adding legitmacy to the plight of the bottom 80 percent is established.

The question is asked Why has the American Economy been failing most of its people? Some claim that globalization, privelege, governmental gridlock, leveraged buyouts of corporations and international trade agreements. Gordon argues... that we have been ignoring a major source of our economic problem over the last twenty years: the way most U.S. corporations maintain bloated bureaucracies and mistreat their workers.

I tend to agree with Gordon that U.S. corporations in their attempts to maintain their managerial bureaucracies negatively impact their workers positions with subtle but very real  threats of reorganization, non value added theory that is to identify positions or processes within the organization that can be performed with better efficiency or with less people. Subjecting workers to fear of losing their jobs and positions due to efforts of their own in a attempt to be competitive with their counterparts and maintain their positions within the organization. or face  "layoffs" more commonly referred to today as "downsizing," a term coined for the nineties but will be used extensively through the millennium.

This is part of Gordons' Stick Strategy-the intimidation of workers. This tactic is what I consider to be a Crime because it is Structurally Violent to the corporations employees psyche, socially within the workforce, its counterproductive and it violates the "psychological contract" between employers and employees (Rousseau, 1995)."

Gordon speaks of the Stick Strategy as employers wielding a big stick over the employees heads threatening punishment if they do not perform. All along  providing themselves with a reason to maintain or increase the size of the managerial bureaucracy-its needed because we have to watch the employees and ensure that they are performing in our best interest.     .

Other observers of downsizing have mused that from a broader cultural perspective, downsizing can be seen as the embodiment of the "creative destruction" inherent in capitalism, downsizing may not be pretty to watch and people will get hurt for sure,but this is the way the market takes care of itself. There is no entitlement to a job any more than there is entitlement for a corporation to exist. People as well as organizations, need to gear up to compete in the marketplace. (Schumpeter 1950) and others warn "that only the foolish will let their fates be decided by those they work for; the wise ones will think and act like entrepreneurs even if the fall under the label "employees". (Bridges 1994) What a cavalier attitude.!!!!!

Any References outside of Gordon are taken from Downsizing And Organizational Culture (Thomas Hickok) Jeanne, Please excuse the lateness of this offering computer is presenting problems. -Cliff Parks-

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