GuidoWorld

Most American’s believe the bulk of manufacturing jobs have been lost to cheap overseas labor. While this is not a total falsehood, most citizens would be shocked to learn that a good deal of American jobs have remained in the good old USA, the only problem is you only can get the jobs if you are in prison.

While the unemployment rate climbs and industries are shrinking in urban and rural areas alike, business and the job market is positively booming inside US prison walls. From a corporate perspective prison labor is a gold mine, just consider these fiscal and investment nuggets. The following statistics are from 2008.

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

In response to this employers dream corporations are lobbying hard to hep pass laws which will help prison populations to swell, as well as pushing for funding to be available to create more prisons. The percentage of private for profit prisons is also accelerating. Some more stats from 2008 to be found in an article by Global Research will illustrate these points.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world’s prison population, but only 5% of the world’s people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports….. “The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce.

Now, this information may be news to many of you, but such a lucrative investment arena has certainly not been hidden from investors. The article later states:

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. “This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.

Okay you might be saying, sure this type of thing probably goes on, but surely it can’t be a major factor in any specific industry. Well, I’ll just quote away.

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

The article goes on to name names. This partial list from 2008 shows how varied the business cliental for prison labor is.

Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call “highly skilled positions.” At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.

Now, its not just corporations looking for money, but politicians are even trying to attract prison labor positions to their state.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that “there won’t be any transportation costs; we’re offering you competitive prison labor (here).

Private prisons have a lot more leverage to make up their own rules. Not only do they pay their prison laborer’s pennies per hour, but they also employ a skeleton crew of guards to lower their overhead, and convert prison infractions to work without pay and extra hours.

The bulk of our prison population are not in prison for acts of violence.

Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes….Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country’s 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.

So in today’ economy in only make “cents” to break the law and go to prison. Since a large portion of our prison population are arrested due to illegal drug activity, it makes sense to deal with your current unemployment blues by getting high and just making yourself visible.

Since 2008 the US prison population continues to grow at a stunning rate. I also want to mention that there’s is a good chance that if you are speaking to a telephone solicitor or support staff that is not overseas, they probably are answering your call from inside a prison.

Even though prison life is not for me, who am I to judge. I grew up in a Midwest blue collar town in which factory work was viewed by many of us as a form of prison anyway. With its long hours, mind numbing repetition, and zoo like working environment, it kind of was like being incarcerated.

Yet, for the millions unemployed, without health care, in danger of being homeless and bankrupt being incarcerated with a warm place to sleep, be fed, get health care and a job might be a way to go. Heck, in a lot of prisons you even have the time and resources to work out, read, play sports and develop a rewarding hobby. Yet, in today’s competitive global work force, prisoners may soon have to jettison those luxuries so that America can stay on top.

It would be interesting some time to consider how much prison and non-prison life are becoming alike. The whole closed society thing is an obvious comparison between prison and military life. The amount of on going surveillance we are subjected to is beginning to mirror prison life as well as is how often we are patted down and scanned for weapons. With GPS systems and the like you could make an argument that we on the outside are being monitored and kept under greater scrutiny than the imprisoned. While our rights are vanishing in the name of protecting our freedom, prisoners rights have remained somewhat consistent.

The simple fact of the US imprisoning over 3% of its adult populace should call into question our referring to ourselves as the land of freedom. Add to that our obsession with surveillance and a need to police the world, and our claim of being a beacon of democracy is dubious at best. I’m not expecting Utopia but a little conceptual consistency and an occasional break from our stated ideals being oxymoronic at every turn would be appreciated.

Jim Guido

Just when you think the Wizard will be exposed as a sham the way he was in the Wizard of Oz when he exclaimed, “don’t mind the man behind the curtain”, the Wizard of the US somehow escapes detection once again. Where Dorothy’s dog Toto succeeded it seems that Egypt and the other northern African and Middle Eastern democratic movements will fail.

Less than two weeks ago it seemed like Houdini (the US) would not be able to escape out of his straight jacket in time to avoid drowning in the water tank. Yet, somehow our view was blocked and distracted long enough for Houdini to cheat his way out of the handcuffs and once again hear the applause of his amazed peers and fans.

Before I go on, I just want to say that these guys are good, scary good.

When the mass demonstrations for Democracy and Freedom began I did not see how the US could hide its true policies and priorities from being exposed. At the beginning all I was sure of was the fact that the US and Israel were both highly invested in keeping the status quo in the area, and would find true democracy threatening and unacceptable.

Yet, I must admit that the TV and media coverage was sufficiently disjointed enough to prevent me from understanding what was going on and why. It wasn’t until I read an article entitled “Are We Witnessing the Start of a Global Revolution?” on Global Researcher.CA that I was able to get some insight and clarity. I strongly urge everyone to read that thoughtful article which had all the earmarks of real journalism.

I was a tad surprised and somewhat shocked when some of the US press began to praise and support the people’s movement. Even the White House and members of the Administration made statements saying that they were behind the people. While part of me felt encouraged by all this, a larger part of me just knew the game was far from being over.

The comments of support for the demonstrators was lukewarm at best, and not really followed up with any concrete action. When Obama claimed that he wasn’t in contact with Mubarak, I had a hard time believing it. Maybe, technically he talked through a third party to avoid a bald face lie, but it would be hard to fathom his totally abandoning such an important and long standing US ally, or the demonstrators he voiced initial support of.

While watching the news unfold I made a short list of predictions, strategies and interventions that would be attempted to diffuse the movement, and sway American citizen support away from the freedom demonstrators.

The first of these prediction came almost minutes later when either Obama or someone of his administration shifted the emphasis from support of the demonstrators and the need for Mubarak to immediately step down, to our support for the demand for reforms. Soon the call for “reforms” became the central issue. Obama and the other wizards began an endless verbal campaign of explaining how Mubarak had become out of touch with the people and had not listened to the US’s demands that he incorporate reforms benefiting the people. Soon we were told that these calls for reforms had been a central message from every president since he was in power.

The message being sent was that the US during Mubarak entire reign stayed true to its primal role as defender of freedom and democracy throughout the world. Yet, sadly Mubarak had not listened to their calls and recommendations. The President and his cabinet implied and sometimes stated that the US was powerless to get Mubarak to implement these reforms.

It is extremely hard to believe that we would classify anyone as an old ally who we were powerless to influence, especially, with the economic and military importance of the Suez canal at stake. Would we and Israel depend on the security of the Middle East on someone who did not listen to and implement their wishes?
If the US were truly desirous of democracy and freedom, they would not have been the only major nation not having live cable and satellite coverage of the day-to-day events. The old 60’s revolution chant of “the whole world is watching” would have to be modified to say everyone but the US is watching.

The attacks on journalists came shortly after US journalists attempted to cover the events to make up for the fact that it’s audience was the only one’s being left out. During this same period US journalists were allowed to investigate and conduct reports which could weaken if not remove support for the demonstrators. Reports of demonstrator violence increased along with reports of vandalism, looting, and destruction of artistic and cultural objects and sites of significance.
All of the above techniques and interventions were on my list as they had been so successful during the Iraqi wars. So, too, was the inevitable fear of the democracy movement resulting in the rise to power of Islamic Fundamentalist Religious Extremists. Also the growing investigative reports outlining how a democratic Egypt would most likely be anti-US.

I must admit the desire to keep Mubarak in power because he is a modern pharaoh was an unexpected and creative touch. In this way we could support a dictator because a democratic government would destroy the dignity and rich history of the entire Egyptian culture.

It does appear to me that the democratic movement has lost its energy, urgency and focus and now seems willing to let the status quo stay with the promise of future elections. Our government learned well from the mistakes in the 60’s when it underestimated the strength and determination of blacks, women and students. Somehow it was able to assist the Egyptian status quo from having to suffer the same level of prolonged chaos and adaptation to the desires of the populace. Through the artful abilities of the swayers of public opinion we now face the likelihood that Mubarak or one of his representatives will be present to insure that the future elections will produce a government the US and Israel can embrace.

The strife and rebellion in Egypt is not over, and another authentic surge of true revolution may still be in the offing. Yet, at this point it appears as if the Wizard of US(A) and Harry Houdini will live another day. Most likely the propagandists will continue to do their usually gifted job of defanging the campaign for democracy by having them win something called democracy which in fact is something far less than free or democratic.

Just as was the case with Obama’s health care reform bill, which in the end is doing little to disturb the status quo. In fact it looks to be so wonderfully crafted as to remove all fiscal hardship from insurers and instead placing all responsibility onto the patient (consumer). Add the fact that its minimal benefits are being overturned by courts around the country and you essentially have written a bill which has not reformed anything, but only empowered the status quo. This all being accomplished while allowing the faithful to believe that the president was a victim rather than an architect of a corporate friendly health care system.

In sum, the US will continue practicing torture while claiming to be the leader in human rights, censoring and controlling the media while talking freedom of the press, leading the world in percentage of the populace imprisoned while claiming to be the land of the free, and starving millions of innocent people through embargoes and the like while being ethically outraged at the pathetic acts of a few desperate terrorists.

Who out there reading this even remembers that a week ago there were reports of our government curtailing monies given to Egypt to support the advancement of democracy? Where is the discussion regarding the absurdity of saying we had no influence over a government whose military and economic stability depended on its receiving yearly funds from our government?

Who out there looks beyond the words of the Wizard of US and instead looks at its actions? Who remembers how many of the dictators we remove from office we placed their in the first place? Just how many democracies have we actually supported, as opposed to how many dictators? Who leads the world in arm sales, in direct or indirect involvement in campaigns of genocide, and in the stripping of nations of their national resources and sovereignty?

We may not be the bad guy, but are definitely not the good guys. Though falling, we still are an empire and have the opportunity to help create a better world with less strife and suffering. Yet, until we expose the Wizard to be the self-serving and greedy monster that the excesses of empire have made him, we will not be that beacon of hope we are told we are. The Wizard is not the President or any past president, but rather an image and ideal created to deceive the populace into not only tolerating actions done against our best interests, but supporting and demanding policies which strip of us our freedoms and cause us to be perpetually embattled with our contemporaries.

It is hard to imagine us becoming the trusting and kind nation that could live up to its stated objectives. A greedy, fearful and controlling nation can not at the same time be a beacon of freedom and a broker for peace and harmony. Our nation could feed the world, yet at this point it seems the thing we most feed it is bullshit.

Jim Guido

Many years ago I adopted Groundhog Day as my favorite holiday. Most of the others either celebrated something potentially divisive such as a religious holiday or had become extremely commercialized. Though I’m a person who enjoys all four seasons, I prefer a long spring and fall, and a shorter summer and winter. While I do enjoy a dose of brittle cold and the bareness of the trees, I do so look forward to the bud of spring. Therefore, a holiday during the depths of hibernation which celebrates the eventual return of spring is something I can really get behind.

My wife, likewise, adopted Groundhog Day as our main holiday to send letters out to friends. Though we appreciated the slew of Christmas cards and letters we got from friends we decided to break up the winter doldrums with a Groundhog Day family newsletter to all our friends. Like most holiday letters we included life updates of ourselves, but we also added games, humor sections, and stories. Most of the stories were political or social parodies of current events somehow involving the Groundhog. The following are excerpts from previous letters.

To Flee or Not To Flee (that is the question)

“Just what is this fascination with the Groundhog?”, Dr. Blarney asked me rhetorically while we sat (ironically) in his cozy wooden den. This is a topic for which Dr. Tumuch Blarney is famous for wanting to sink his teeth into. In this interview, a shameless promo for his new book, “Looking Beyond the Shadow”, Dr. Blarney outlined the basic premise of his attack on what he refers to as, “the cult of the Groundhog”.

According to the good doctor the “myth” of the Groundhog has deep psychological roots, unhealthy ones to hear him describe it. He claims that the spring ritual myth represents a “deep seated fear” of knowing oneself. The “shadow” of the Groundhog represents on one level, one’s real self and the unconscious on the other.

He claims this is obvious considering how it is logical the Groundhog seeing his shadow would usually be a sign of good weather and, therefore, an indication of an early spring. The fact that the Groundhog seeing his shadow is a sign of six more weeks of winter shows that a deeper interpretation is needed.

“The Groundhog’s fleeing back to his winter hideaway is a fleeing from the self”, Dr. Blarney pronounced while puffing on an over sized cigar. “Without the benefit of a mirror the Groundhog’s shadow is the only available view of himself. His running from his shadow demonstrates a fleeing from himself, don’t you see?”

Though this may be the case i couldn’t help wondering how Dr. Blarney was able to see anything through glasses the thickness of skyscraper windows. I mean hasn’t he even heard of laser surgery.

Dr. Blarney became increasingly animated as he talked for hours (the prospect of six more weeks of winter started to seem comparatively short) on his interpretation of both the Groundhog “myth” and its burgeoning “cult”.

The Dr.’s conclusion is that the underlying meaning of the story is very unhealthy. He feels that one should rejoice in seeing one’s shadow and embrace the quest to know oneself. “Fleeing solves nothing”, Dr. Blarney pointed out, “finding oneself is consistent with the true nature of spring.”

The Dr.’s book is a challenging read, and the debate rages on. Dr. Smarmy says that Dr. Blarney’s conclusions reflect a significant ignorance of the thought process of the average rodent. “Rodents are very patient and reflective creatures,” he claims. The Groundhog’s retreat after seeing his shadow makes sense to Dr. Smarmy who states that winter is the time for retreat and reflection and that the seeing of the shadow encourages the Groundhog to continue his quest for self-enlightenment. Dr. Smarmy claims the Groundhog rather than fleeing from himself is actually retreating from society to better focus on, and learn about himself.

I guess the debate can be best summed up by the tagline for the old radio show, “Who know where evil lurks…….only the shadow knows.”

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In an election year I decided to make the Groundhog a secondary character and used Chilly Willy (the cartoon penguin) as way to parody the dot com bubble burst.

Chilly Adds to Winter Woes

It was just last year that our newsletter featured the meteoric presidential campaign for the honorable Chilly Willy. Last week a tearful Willy, with his trademark ice cubes falling from his eyes, gave the political world the cold shoulder when he announced the end of his presidential run.

Willy’s downfall was not due to any scandal, but rather the desperate economic conditions that have ravaged “celluloid valley” and the other animation hubs. Well over 70% of the high tech animators at Warner Bros. and Disney have been laid off since the peak of the bubble in 2001. Chilly’s campaign manager had to cancel a series of speaking engagements due to Chilly being insufficiently drawn.

Many supporters of Chilly have been despondent over his decision to pull out of the race. One young lady summed it up when she said, “When you can’t trust the word of a beloved fictional character it seems to undermine our entire political system”.

The Groundhog added his feelings of remorse in a recent interview from his winter burrow. “Though Chilly was from the far north, he forged a strong bond with us Woodland creatures. He wasn’t just concerned about issues of his district like drilling for oil in Alaska, but also was willing to lend a fin in support of the anti-logging campaigns in the eastern and western forests”.

While the Fed’s excessive printing of money has caused the US dollar to depreciate by some 30% in a little over a year, it pales in comparison to the devastation caused to the fictional dollar by the reckless printing of cash in animated cartoons. Willy’s presidential campaign was a notable casualty of the animator’s splurge to print $$$$. In the last few weeks Willy couldn’t even rent a hotel room with van fulls of animated cash and gold bars.

In a related story reported by the Olympian on January 4, workers at Northland Furniture owned by Roy P. Disney (grand nephew of Walt Disney) were fired and paid with checks with more rubber than Goodyear tires. The workers were called into a meeting shortly before Christmas and instead of receiving bonuses, they were fired and paid in checks which bounced. Neither Mr. Disney nor his accountant have answered reporter’s calls.

With the shortage of funds it was only natural for the animation industry to look for cheap labor. In primary classrooms across the northwest, teachers were assigning students to draw Chilly. Since animation takes hundreds of drawings to execute the simplest task, entire classrooms would have to be mobilized to get Chilly to a podium to deliver a speech. Ms. Grey, a first grade teacher, pointed out that even when children were handed color by number pages, “it’s almost impossible to get the children to all draw Chilly the same way. And even when that’s done, it’s hard to get them to stay in the lines”.

Soon the US student’s nap time made the workload unmanageable. In the end the animation industry turned off shore and outsourced their labor to the far east. Since these children had never seen Chilly, he began to morph into something unrecognizable.

In the last weeks of the campaign, Chilly began to appear in public wearing sunglasses and an overcoat. Chilly, a shadow of his former self, decided to call it quits since he could no longer live up to his former image.

So there you have it. The economy turned Chilly from a national hero into a national tragedy.

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In Jim’s Corner, the section picturing me sitting in a corner wearing a dunce cap I wrote the following:

Through trial and error I’ve learned there are certain descriptive terms one should not use with one’s spouse (wife). Here are some mistakes and their replacements.

Think/ Say

nosy/ Inquisitive
gossipy/ informative
bitchy/ hormonally challenged
insincere/ tactful
controlling/ nurturing
vain/ self-assured
irritating/ playful
bizarre/ creative

Now, you can see why I’m sitting in the corner.

Jim Guido