They used to hire mainly engineers to work at car companies. Where they used to mainly design and build cars.
Now they have vice presidents of diversity.
At least, GM does.
A guy named Eric Peterson (no relation to this writer) just resigned the gig, where he worked with the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers, whose president lauded Peterson as a “champion” and a “trailblazer” for “diversity.”
Translation: He used race guilt to pressure GM into making special accommodations for dealerships owned by non-whites.
And, of course, women.
Skin color (and genitalia) rather than the “content of their character” being the decisive factor.
Peterson says that “…people are the most important resource we have” and that “(we) should nurture and develop them to their maximum potential.”
Certain people.
The problem – one of them – with “diversity” is that it doesn’t mean everyone regardless of color or sex doing their thing, no one hassling anyone because of their color or sex. A merit-based system. That skin color and sex become non-issues.
It really means: Focusing on – obsessing about – race and genitalia; assigning preferred status to certain races and those with one set of genitals (but never the other).
Other races (and the male sex) need not apply.
But they’d better genuflect.
Maybe they ought to put a sign outside to let ’em know We Don’t Serve Whitey Here.
Womyn Only.
The originals were at least honest.
Bull Connor did not pretend to a “diverse” mindset. He preferred whites and preferred to avoid blacks. Like him or not, he was a straight shooter. The Diversity Mongers, in contrast, peddle the same thing (in reverse) without owning up to their race (and genitalia) obsessions. But what else is it when everything is based on race and sex?
On certain races – and just one of the two sexes?
It’s the Hapsburg Empire all over again. A polyglot society held together – barely – by fictional notions of colorblindness as a skein over very real race-and-genitalia based official/legal preferences – enforced by very real bayonets.
And we know what happened to the Hapsburg Empire… right?
Most white males – I know lots of them – don’t harbor any animosity toward blacks (or women, whether white or black) because they’re black or female and certainly aren’t interested in harming them on account of those things. They are open to doing business with – or being friends with – pretty much anyone.
But they chafe at the racial-sexual double standard that says it’s ok to actively discriminate against (and disparage) them simply because they are white (and male) while on the other hand, they must accept with a smile race-and-genitalia-based based preferential treatment of women and “minorities” (not infrequently less competent) or expect to be called “racists” (and “sexists”) for objecting.
Guys like Peterson have made a living off this.
He ought to be ashamed.
And, so should we – all of us, white and black, male and female – for tolerating it. For not standing up against it.
I include myself.
But I have an excuse, at least.
Years ago (back in the ’90s) when I first began to write about cars for a living, I attended my first “press only” events for car journalists. It was my first exposure to corporate racism (and sexism) except it was directed at me on account of my whiteness and maleness. I – and others – endured many an unctuous sermon given by guys like Peterson (every car company has one; has several… they have to… else they risk accusations of… drum roll… “racism”). And, in addition to that, the tub-thumping of race-hustling car journalists such as representatives of a publication titled, I kid you not, African Americans on Wheels.
Because black people – on account of their race – have a different (a diverse) view of what’s under the hood and how a car drives. 
Which of course they do not. They surely have their own opinions, preferences and needs. We all do. But they’re not a function of race or what’s between our legs. They are an expression of our individuality, that’s all. I am not partial to classic muscle cars because I’m a white guy. I just happen to like big V8s and four barrel carbs. I know a black dude who likes these things, too. (If I told this guy he should like “black” cars – whatever that is – he’d probably want to punch me in the face or at least call me an asshole – and I’d deserve it.)
Jews in Jeeps, anyone?
No, the real reason for African Americans on Wheels was to shake down the major car companies using race guilt as the cudgel. This publication had no circulation (they gave it away, as a free insert) but lots of very expensive glossy ads. GM (and other major car companies) bought ad space in a race-hustling publication with no circulation solely and only shut up the publication’s proprietor – who would screech “racism” if they did not ante up.
They anted up.
Peterson’s career as vice president of diversity amounted to the same thing. The difference being GM’s proactiveness. Rather than just pay off a race hustler, why not hire one instead? Make a “commitment to diversity” official policy? 
Which is exactly what has been done. “Diversity” – Hapsburgian racial categorization and preferential treatment – has become so pervasive and routine that we hardly notice it, much less object.
Well, we ought to object.
If the goal is a society in which race and sex no longer matter as criteria for business decisions, personal relationships and so on, we’re never going to get there by obsessing over race and sex as the criteria for business decisions and personal relationships.
Of course, saying that kind of thing openly is “racist,” right?
So be it.
Come and get me.
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Eric, you should Interview Patrick Cassino of Sun Buick and GMC…he runs a dealership under this program. Yet I can’t seem to tell how he qualifies…He also exposes GM for all the waste and bloat that is in the company. I’m sure GM would love to cut relations with him.
Hi Colin,
The PC culture is so embedded in corporate America (GM is no exception) that to even mildly question “diversity” is to invite two things: One, the people within the company will recite rote banalities or they will shun you and flee. Two, if you are an employee of the company, it will mean the end of your career. Expect to be out the door that day.
I have a new doctor. The first time I saw him he said “the rich need to pay their fair share”. The way the system is set up, I agree with that…….but we might define “rich” differently. I started to tell him the US govt. shouldn’t be the provider for those who are truly rich. It’s a quite biased system to say the least. I avoid speaking politics with him. My neighbor and I know who’s running the country. He has a degree in chemistry, a bit older than me, and knows the big pharm/chemical run the country to a great degree. We both realize when we were children there wasn’t anything called “autism” and that once it showed up it has gotten more and more common.
If the rich only had to pay “their fair share” they’d certainly be paying a lot less….
How come it is, that one human being can pay little or nothing, simply because he produces less, while another human being may have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, just because he has been more ambitious/responsible/lucky????
And it’s the people who pay little or nothing who are usually the ones who use the most services. Their kids get a free dumbing-down errr “education”; they may get entitlements such as subsidized rent and food stamps and Medicaid; they get to use and or benefit from all of the same infrastructure that the rich have largely paid for, without contributing a single thing, or in many cases, even supporting their own offspring, while “the rich” who take care of their own, and who provide jobs and stores and basically the apparatus of our society, are penalized, as their wealth is redistributed to those who squander it, and in the process, the government amasses more power over everyone and everything, becoming the controller of all wealth which was earned by others, and also comes off as being charitable in the eyes of the coveteous masses who think that the rich are somehow their enemy, when in fact it is the state which is everybody’s enemy.
The “rich” have been fleeing tax hells like the UK and Belgium for quite some time now. Wonder how long it’ll take before ours catch-on? Let’s see how well Joe Walmart-greeter or Tom McDonald’s-worker gets along when the rich and their resources are gone, and it’s just Uncle and the poor slobs left. Can you say “austerity”?
As bad as ‘wealth redistribution’ is, the worst part of it, IMHO, is the percentage that is distributed, not to ‘the needy,’ but to the gunvermin employees that administer the system.
Remember, when Robin Hood ‘stole from the rich to give to the poor’ he was stealing tax money from the Sheriff and the Prince to return it to those from whom it was taken.
I’m not so concerned with what Robin Hood does with the proceeds of his crimes. Give it to some ghetto-dweller who can’t keep her legs closed, or buy crack with it (well, I guess either way, it ends up in the hands of the crack dealer :D) I’m more concerned with the fact that he can get away with the theft, because not only is it against NAP, but if he can do that to the rich, imagine what he can do to a pauper like me!
But that is how this whole system of theft got started. Assure the “poor” that it would only be taken from “the rich” and would benefit them. So their greed made them go for it, not caring if others were robbed, so long as it wasn’t them. And within just a few years, that little bitty tax on just the very very rich, became half or more of everyone’s income.
The coveteousness of “the poor” was used to justify the establishment of robbery, and the poor did not seem to realize that by legalizing robbery, they enslaved themselves and their children and their entire country.
The point is that those who seek power and a cut of what is produced for themselves have purposely misinformed people of what Robin Hood did.
Robin Hood returned what the state stole. Instead it’s mangled into stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Those rich were rich because they were the government. The poor were poor because the government stole their wealth.
Again our problems come from the fact that just about all of us are deliberately told things that are not so throughout our childhood and few of us reach adulthood with the ability to write over those sectors with new information.
Get the schools back and we can restore liberty in a few generations. Failure to get the schools back means the statists only suffer minor setbacks.
superior rants that i will keep in mind.
PTB,
You can’t steal from the robber. To fall into that trap lies madness. If Robin Hood existed, he merely returned, justly, stolen property to its rightful owners.
“You can’t steal from the robber.” My point exactly. The legend has been manipulated to obscure the truth.
No one pays. That word has to be abolished from the debate. You do not pay the armed robber. It is theft pure and simple. Stop with the poor pay. The poor and rich alike are robbed by the plunder thieves known as government.
Hear hear! Competent people who happen to be white men are expected to provide our “fair share” to prop up the untalented and/or lazy, while at the same time bowing our heads in shame for the sin of being white and male, and thus, somehow, oppressors.
“I am not partial to classic muscle cars because I’m a white guy. I just happen to like big V8s and four barrel carbs.”
No, it’s because you’re a white guy. That’s the narrative.
Most race and gender hustlers know they’re race and gender hustling. They have a pragmatic attitude. Whatever works. They’d as soon champion “the content of their character…” if that would be to their benefit. They’re ideological entrepreneurs, responding to the incentives the social justice market provides. They love expressions of white and male resentment, straight white male resentment being the best kind of resentment. Yes, it’s deja Habsburgs all over again, with the Archduke and duchess about to round the corner in Sarajevo. You think the race and gender hustlers care? Their bumper sticker reads: “Après nous le deluge.”
Ah! Now I see GM’s plan. They make cars that are so crappy that only jigs will buy them. Hey, after all, GM has the labor force of two third-world countries [Mexico and Detroit] at it’s disposal, so why not make cheesy cars which will look right at home on the streets of such places after a year or two; and which will discourage car theft/stripping, because the cars get totalled-out easily, and are so crappy, that there is no demand for late-model used parts, ’cause they aren’t worth fixing?
It all makes sense now! Who else would buy their stupid electric cars and other cheesy offerings? Now all they have to do is get an automotive version of the sub-prime mortgage model going, so that their chosen people will be able to buy (but not actually pay for) these diversity-mobiles.
It’s O-K, GM, don’t even give us white males a thought. We don’t want your garbage, and are not stupid enough to buy them. Foisting them off on women and others who know little about cars/economics/the real world, and who are new to fire and the wheel, is probably your best option for selling these things.
And you’ll still get some business from some whites, anyway, as there seem to be no lack of clueless souls even among us these days. A white trash relative of mine (who is on food stamps and Medicaid) just bought a new Chevy 2 weeks ago. The marketing must be working; they have set their sights on those who are most likely to buy their products.
Of course, before long, all of these “diverse” sorts will start seeing how crappy the cars really are, and then accuse GM of racism for targeting them as customers….
I hear that Chevy’s new slogan will be:
“Chevy. It’s not what’s under the hood, it’s what’s IN the ‘hood!”
Nunzio, have I ever got a deal for you. A used Cruz but it poses as much newer. It’s got all the fascist whistles and bells….and it was made in Canada but has a Texas plate on it. It’s stable mate is a real workhorse, is driven by bankster money.
“made in Canada but has a Texas plate on it” – and don’t forget the Cuban engineering.
Hmmmm, how much would you pay me to take it, 8SM? Actually, the white-trash relatives are looking forward to “moving up” to a Crudz, as soon as their new Sonic depreciates enough to keep them amongst the ranks of the “needy” when they trade it (Don’t want to interrupt the flow of redistributed wealth, ya know…)
Nunzio, Cruz is the supporter of why I’ve been fleeced so I couldn’t pay you much…..except in blood. I just know it’s traitor territory.
Nunzio, I wish that you were mt next door neighbor.
I won’t buy GM crap or Chrysler. We went to Japanese or Korean cars for years. Way before the second bailout. Better warranties and service at the dealership. After the second bailout in 2009 of both companies, I view people driving these type cars since then as uninformed and too lazy to do research on anything they buy.
Hi Laura,
I hear that from lots of people; GM ought to be listening more.
Ditto for Ford co. after reading the article. American auto companies (gov. controlled) should be avoided. Too many other choices.
Hi Laura,
The culture at GM, Ford and Chrysler has changed a lot since I began writing about cars and the business back in the ’90s. The degree of PC orthodoxy is almost (and probably soon will be) Stalinist. Like a “Physical Jerks’ session in Orwell’s 1984… almost. Come on comrades! You can do it!
The Safety Cult is as bad ad the Diversity Cult.
Most major companies have embraced the sick ideology of Cultural Marxism. Ford is into “empathy training”. Ford employees, including men, have to wear an “empathy belly”. It’s gotten to the point that working for a corporation is almost as bad as working for the government.
https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/hr/2016/how-ford-uses-an-empathy-belly-to-improve-its-employees-soft-skills
It makes some vague sense for people directly involved with the design of ergonomic systems. I get that. However there are other ways to accomplish it. You hire people for a few hours to evaluate the product. Or you give them the product for their evaluation. In the case of cars maybe you let them use it for a couple weeks. It doesn’t require every employee doing this sort of thing.
This has nothing to do with the job of the guy who designs water pumps or EGR valves or differentials or countless other parts and systems. It certainly doesn’t apply to people working in finance, accounting, or countless other functions.
Of course they can gather opinions from many different people. Real people. That’s what focus groups are for. This move isn’t about engineers getting a better understanding of the different types of drivers. It’s laughable to think that putting on an expensive fat suit is going to make somebody empathize with a pregnant woman. This is blatant social engineering. The modern corporation does empathy training for every department, not just one.
Hmm….
Can the wearers of the “empathy belly” get an “abortion”? Their body, their choice, right?
It’s a question of property rights. Do they ‘own’ the belly or are they just borrowing it? If they agreed to wear it, then it is a question of contract.
I know you were joking, but it does raise valid questions.
Especially if it becomes mandated that males wear such a belly…
Much like it’s mandated what means of exchange we use…
Lots of good questions flow from such flip comments. 😉
The time before.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YnesVqoOPwA
I am a true engineer (electrical and mechanical) who can analyze a problem, provide a solution, and repair damn near anything, mechanical electrical etc.
Eightsouthman, you bring up an excellent point about qualifications, Sad to say, I don’t deliver good jokes, suck up to anyone, or smoke…so in the grand scheme of things, i am not “qualified”.
My only qualification is that I know what I am doing, can and do run circles around other engineers. I do have a good and helpful personality, but, in the past, have been piled on with multiple projects, because I could get the jobs done…
I have found that many engineers do not have the ability to repair their own equipment, or even change a tire…those who have recently graduated from a STEM curriculum…
I have been wrenching on cars since the early 1960s and still do…
Math based engineering education for the last many decades. There are many good at school engineers because of it.
I’ve been piled on too. Then called lazy because I wouldn’t take more on even though I was far beyond company recommended loading. I’ve just grown so tired of the profession for so many reasons.
In the 1970s they said that by the year 2000 we’d only work 30 hours a week. If you take an average of everyone who’s able to work, even if they don’t have a job, or spend most of their day on Facebook, I’d bet we’re way below 25 hours.
Of course those of us who are actually productive work 60 hour weeks so they can enjoy their leisure time.
Reminds me of the “Office Space” interview with the consultants…
When he was honest, it turned out there was only about an hour of work per week that he actually did…
😉
BTW, I “work” about 45-50 hours on any given week.
I’ll actually DO about 3-5 hours of WORK per day; the rest is engineered inefficiencies and “human” work, trying to get those precious few hours of accomplishments in.
(For example, 2 hours of scripting; 1 hour of analysis; 2 hours of waiting for the spyware to let me run my program; 2 hours of emails to get the information needed to complete the analysis; an hour or two hand-holding the intern, talking to the boss, etc.; time on here – usually to kill the waiting for spyware, but then I’ll spend more time here than waiting… And meetings, LOTS of meetings. Like the “waiting”, I’ll leverage that for commenting here.)
Some days, we have 4 hours of meetings… One wonders how and when you can actually get WORK done this way?
Further, since it’s a hard-charging, “agile” environment, the pressure is always on… To do… WHAT, exactly? Nothing gets done! One project is 4 YEARS in testing.
{Sigh}
Wish I could claim the same credentials… I am similar in software, but not in a meaningful field. 😉 😛
Same thing applies here, too, and it’s made worse by offshoring and outsourcing. The “evil white males” carry the load of 3 people. Then some Bean Cunter comes along (spelling intentional) and decides we can do “the job” overseas for less.
Except it usually takes 5 people, and 3X as long, and the quality is frequently lacking.
But we’re not “qualified” to note these things.
Note that offshoring can be China, Mexico, Philippines, India, Pakistan, Middle Eastern countries… And the workers male or female, makes no difference.
But we must pretend the cost in time and frustration does not exist. That these outsourced employees have the same dedication to the company as an actual, works-for-the-company employee – that “cannot be questioned.” (Scare quotes.)
Definitely tired of the Matrix, Empire, whatever… But cannot disassemble it, too big for any one man, or even many groups (Native American tribes, Libertarians, Anarchists, even all put together…)
I’ll stop venting. 😛 Got someone raking me over the coals via Office Communicator because I put my hours in after the deadline (our timesheet must be kept up to date on a “daily” basis. Like we’re punchcard assembly line workers. But half of most days is spent dicking around, NOT by choice; another half, by choice; with the result that many days, I’m working late, but if I keep an honest time card? 8-9 hours a day, while I’m “working” 12-14 all too often. And technically, based on employment law – that’s ALL billable hours, as I’m there at the management’s say-so, start By This Time – and then leave when the work is done, or work from home after hours. )
FTAFTFH.
Better yet, let them starve…
Peterson says that “…people are the most important resource we have” and that “(we) should nurture and develop them to their maximum potential.”
This is the most revealing statement of all.
Yes, we are a “human resource”. Instead of a billet of aluminum, we are interchangeable meat-bags. One just the same as the next.
One must “maximize” their utilization. Just as with so many board feet of timber, no waste. Turn the chips into OSB and the sawdust into particle board. The idea that these “human resources” have lives, goals, desires and feelings is totally alien to today’s corporate culture.
You wonder why the American business economy is in the tank? Here’s your taproot…get me an axe.
Me too, Mark… I think I’d rather live in a van down by the river, if it comes to that, than ever go work for a corporation again.
Engineers haven’t mattered since Harley Earl proved that people are more interested in paint than performance.
Why do you think Apple makes such a big deal about Jony Ive?
Hi Eric,
I came online (as a car journalist) at the very tail end of the “old culture” that still valued engineering; there were still a few senior people let at car companies who were “car guys” (Lutz at Chrysler, for example; or Coletti at Ford). Mostly that’s gone now. The PC orthodoxy that pervades everything has to be felt to be believed. Who unto you if you step out of line…
I was an engineer for Ternstedt Division of GM (now defunct/absorbed by Fisher) back when Bunkie Knudsen was GM of Pontiac. Ternstedt was a hardware and trim division. Bunkie was a “car guy” engineer. He instituted a “Zero Defect” program at Pontiac. Admittedly, specs were usually tighter and we took more precaution on what we shipped to Cadillac, but Pontiac was known for “sending the boxes back”. Bunkie didn’t keep straight hours, of course. Friends who worked at Pontiac told me that each time he left the plant he took the next car off the line home. And it always came back with a “punch list”. He could find a dropped stitch on the back of a seat.
His specialty engine shop not only scared Hell out of GM execs, but pretty-much scared Chrysler right out of racing. Of course, they had a “Holier than Thou” excuse that racing was really not good for the environment, HP was not good for us, etc.
Bunkie, unappreciated sufficiently at GM, went to Ford. I figured at the time he was making a big mistake and all they wanted was to pick his brain and then discard the carcass. Turned out about that way. He didn’t last long there since he crossed swords with Saint Iacocca, a better politician than “car guy”.
I wonder if with that last name he would even get past the diversity guys and into the plant.
Hi ARYLIOA,
“Ternstedt Division”
Fort Street or Jersey?
(Reposted) SSNJ, and later at DHQ in Warren. I was a GMI grad, class of 61/62 so knew folks from GM plants around the world.
That’s the story everywhere. SG&A and the marketing department will do more to move the stock price than a hot new product. Wasn’t GMAC the most profitable division of GM? Someone who can convince you to plunk down your hard-earned money and trade in a perfectly good vehicle is more valuable than gold. And a salesman who “could sell refrigerators to eskimos” gets the attention of the general manager, not the guy complaining about problems on the production line.
Back when I did capital budgeting I quickly learned that business at risk, or labor savings, were worthless. Every spend had to have a giant revenue number attached. Even a few extra sales contracts would get the green light, even if we all knew it was BS. We spent thousands of dollars on laptops for the salespeople, who had no idea how to use them, just because it was easy to justify, but my techs had to keep using their 3 year old models. They didn’t get new ones until Y2K opened up the IT budget.
Apple used to have a lot of hidden engineering in their products. Stuff that only people who would be opening up the product would appreciate. How the cases were designed, etc. I don’t know what they do these days. It’s been a long time since I took any apart.
It’s hard to take their modern products apart without a heat gun and non-marring pry tools. They are not designed to be repairable, but replaceable.
First I gave up on the iPhone when it became too thin to hold. Recently I gave up on the MacBook line because they’re not expandable (needed for a software professional) and overpriced for the specs.
Apple = “A Pile of Pricey, Lousy Excrement”
Very few seem to have gotten the message yet, but Steve Jobs’ death spelled the death of his company. All Apple is doing now is recycling stale, years-old ideas by glamorizing new models of the same technology with new psckaging in the form of redundant functionality that either no one really wants or needs or that is done better and cheaper by competitors. And for shitty customer service, they are peerless.
The only reason they still compete at all is because of the marching moron majority’s obsession with brand. With any luck even that won’t help in a few years as quality product continues to decline while prices rise. Resting on one’s laurels succeeds only for so long.
OS XMacOS is still better than Windows. iOS is better managed than Android (although not necessarily better). The tight integration between devices (universal clipboard, unlock your Mac with your watch, Continuity) is surprisingly good.But their hardware is more about bells and whistles these days than it is about performance. They are way behind in portable devices and laptops especially, and I doubt there’s any incentive for them to catch up. They want the mass business market, and they are really pushing iPads and iOS to the detriment of everything else. The high end Mac Pro hasn’t had an upgrade in 3 years, they don’t have a stand-alone 4 or 5K monitor, and they’ve pissed off a lot of people with soldered RAM and flash on the MacBooks.
Sorry for going off topic.
I have come to the conclusion that humans don’t like merit based systems. Not the merit us odd balls think of anyway. The ability to design a car or the ability to write about one or grow crops or mine metal or anything like that. That sort of merit doesn’t count.
The only kind of merit that humans value is the ability to socially manipulate. The ability to work the system, the ability to play politics, and so on. I’ve heard it many times. Take a person skilled in something and take a person skilled in playing politics and social manipulation. Who advances further?
Things are this way because humans want it this way. The cultural marxists would not get traction if they weren’t exploiting base aspects of the human animal. They exist and do so because they could not achieve traction directly in economics.
Envy with a side dish of jealousy, Brent. As is was and ever will be.
People like “people people.” We like the attractive woman, the funny salesman, the persuasive manager.
We respect the intelligent, but we don’t want to hang out with them.
Given this fact, and that most businesses are social constructs, as a CEO the more distance you can put between you and the smart people who actually do the work, the better.
Respect? I don’t think it even goes that far.
There are companies that promote the idiots (who weren’t even people people) over the smart people who did the work. The theory is if they promote the people who are good at doing the work then they won’t have anyone who will do it, let alone do it well.
The Dilbert Principle: People will be promoted to the level where they do the least amount of damage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbert_principle
Some of it is an offshoot of Taylorism, where complex tasks are broken down into finer and more granular steps until any average moron can do them, even if it means employing more and more people. Keeps salaries low, keeps smart people who might question management away and no one can hold the system hostage, since no one person can control it all.
I remember that. But I’ve see such people do considerable damage. That said the damage control from the lower ranks usually minimizes it.
“Of course those of us who are actually productive work 60 hour weeks so they can enjoy their leisure time.”
Baloney. You work 60 hours a week because you are afraid you’ll be fired if you don’t. My use of my leisure time is in no way related to your choice to be a wage slave. Enjoy those material items your job provides if you can find the time. Me? I’m going fishing.
Hi Doug,
I hear you on living within (ideally, below) your means so as not to be a wage slave subject to PC orthodoxies. But it’s easier said than done these days.
Looking for a job recently one of my main questions is how many hours I can get. Hopefully at least 5 days of 14 hours I can log and more I can charge for. 6 days is nothing new nor 7. When the patch was booming and I had specialty loads I’d drive 130 miles and load my truck as many times as I could stand doing 110 mile turnarounds on both days of the week-end. Then I could run 6-700 miles every day of the week. We live like paupers so every time it stops for a month or two and you only get work now and then. I don’t consider it vacation since “if” the phone rings I take whatever it is however long it lasts.
Last winter it was all day and more of loading with an open loader in hard winds in freezing temps and this spring 105-108 degree days with high humidity and running 700 miles down bad roads with no a/c. We call this “retirement” and I wouldn’t do it back when I could pick and choose. It seems like those days are over for most people.
It’s so true, Brent.
I have very few friends in the biz anymore because very few even care about cars, let alone actually wrench. You ought to come with me to a press conference sometime and see it for yourself….
If you have one in the Chicago area, I’d go along for the fun of it.
Most people don’t like the merit system because they are barely competent, let alone good or excellent at anything. So they never stand out, at least in a good way when it comes to real work.
“Standing out” is the surest way to get yourself fired/downsized/laid off these days, especially if you’re a middle-aged white male. You’re either “too expensive” (i.e., you command a higher salary by bringing experience and efficiency to the table) or the politicians in charge feel justifiably threatened by your competency and go to the ends of the earth to force you out.
It all makes sense when you remember that producing quality goods and services that satisfy paying customers is no longer the purpose of corporations in this post-modern, post-capitalist society.
I found my niche in the company by doing something everyone else is afraid to do. Add my generally gruff responses to “how’s it going” and most people run away when I offer to train them. Also helps to be willing to help out when there’s real work to be done or a problem no one else can figure out.
That, and being physically located about as far away from the Galactic Center helps enormously.
The tall blade of grass is the first to get cut.
Exactly what I was getting at. However so many that can’t succeed either way want it this way too. They’ll never be able to play the corporate game to get higher either but they’ll use this social system to keep other people who have skills down…. oh maybe I just answered my own question.
Exactly.
By accepting the position he occupies, Eric Peterson has essentially declared “people who behind my back call me a ‘useles, talentless black [or a less polite term] hustler without an ounce of genuine self-respect’ are right.”
Prediction: no matter who “wins” the (s)election next month, the PC regime is going to come under assault as more and more white people, especially white males, say “Fuck this shit! Enough is enough!” and start openly voicing opinions such as the above.
People with nothing left to lose (i.e., white men, if the current marginalization campaign is taken to its full conclusion) usually don’t.
Actually, “want” isn’t the right term.
They don’t see past the “shiny.” It’s subconscious influence, like subliminal ads (Properly, things like product placement in a movie. Times Square has a Coca-Cola ad, or the Hero drinks Coke, for example.)
This is just, “X” is likeable, makes me feel good, takes an interest, so I’ll ignore defect, overlook shortcoming, never even notice the glaring inadequacy… “Shiny!”
Politics in a nut shell.
Putting up with a surly SOB who gets the job done, or putting up with a Shiny Person who delivers a second-rate product in twice the time…? People want Option B.
Let’s see, a sword that cuts through an engine block, in 3 weeks…? Or the promise of that product, takes 6 weeks, shatters on third swing, but I like Bill better than Griswold, so it’s OK…. (NOT a repeat customer, but who cares?)
Then, you get .Gov involved, and now they don’t even have to have a decent public face… (thinking rolling brownouts and blackouts in CA)
Peterson looks like the Emperor of Mayo, the planet Alf was from. Once we find intelligent life from some other planet they’ll be front and center in board rooms even if they live in a methane atmosphere and have no direct way of communicating.
When i worked for a big corporation that “feminist” bs was going strong…..and loud, always loud. A woman could have dropped turds on the president’s desk in the form of FU and gotten not only a private office but a raise and special counseling with a greatly reduced workload. A white woman Could get fired there, ostensibly, but not a brown or black or red, purple or green woman, esp. not that blue woman from Star Trek. No matter how incompetent they might be or how unreliable, they were there till they didn’t want to be and for most, that was quite literally until they decided to retire or move to East Texas and “live off the land” or as you and I know it, live off a sugar daddy.
I’m sure we’ve all noticed that rarely do big corporations that own convenience stores have a white male employee and never one as a manager. Same goes for govt. jobs.
Big construction sites with rows of porta potties give you an instant tip-off as to women on the premises with a couple of those with padlocks…..and guess who has the keys.
Women in the workplace = men doing all the REAL work while also mopping up and taking the blame for women’s incompetence-driven messes and being denied promotion or positions of authority while the women take all the credit for successes and all the promotions.
In all my time in engineering I’ve probably encountered two women who actually had knack and were teachable.
“Peterson looks like the Emperor of Mayo, the planet Alf was from.”
In that case I’m sorry but I can’t resist saying ‘Hold the Mayo!’
Also, re the ‘rows of porta potties – this is off topic, but one of my pet peeves is all the ‘city folk’ that don’t know enough to shut the lid when they’re done. It don’t smell near as bad if you give the vent pipe a chance to word properly.
‘work’ not ‘word’
PtB, I’ve made it my mission to avoid them like the plague. For what it’s worth, they all have hail screen windows at the top all the way around which helps immensely. We were building a huge pad for an oil storage facility, and oil off-loading facility and new pipeline HQ’s. We had it dozed down and bladed so every morning I got there in the dark(it was beside a major highway)to get my rig ready to roll and made my way through that stuff they call pasture there, just tiny mesquite, catclaw and cactus to a spot where a roll would hang on an old dead limb(new one every day)and I could just watch the stars and highway several hundred feet away and get my duties done before tearing off. A building contractor showed up one day with couple big portable offices and parts trailer. I didn’t think much of it till the next morning when I arrived to find the entire hill lit up by huge light towers. Luckily the road to the pit went through non-fenced pasture. Keeping them aired out wasn’t a big deal with the wind blowing. I know, you’re thinking, The wind doesn’t blow ALL the time. True dat, I remember it stopped dead still right before the tornado hit the house and barn.
As an aside, i used to see all types of African animals I couldn’t identify. Wish I’d had a dashcam for that. In a big lease between Midland and Odessa I used to commonly see the red wolf/coyote crosses. They’d just stop and watch you go by. I’d try to get a pic with my phone. See that? Yeah, a big blur. Yep, that’s it. Texas is covered with exotic game now. Going back to the house from dove hunting I saw something in the barditch on the FM road we were on. I got close enough to see it was an emu. I slowed down and paced it as it just continued to run right next to the road. A bit over 20 mph steady. It would rotate its head and look at us and then back to the front. A friend from Oregon was with me. He said “let’s shoot it”. For what? says me. You gonna make emu oil? I told him to grab the lariat hanging in the cab and I’d let him get in the back if he wanted to rope it. Those things are mean to the nth and will kill you toot sweet. No thanks. Think you can’t get pecked and kicked to death? Smart dogs give them a wide birth.
I have been repeatedly denied positions which I am eminently qualified for, merely because of my physical characteristics (heterosexual white male). Quite often, those firms that have rejected me hire a “two-fer” (female person of color). This assures them of qualifying for government contracts and other race-based “perks”, which are denied to white-owned firms.
In addition, I have noticed that, quite often, these firms struggle as they have to hire two people to do what would have only taken one person…
anarchyst, you might not be as qualified as you think. How tall are you? You know the tallest guy gets all the promotions. Do you smoke cigarettes? If not, you’re just not a serious enough person. Can you deliver good jokes? Suck up to the people above you on that precarious ladder? Do you have the gall to fire someone at your own level or above because the chickenshit boss doesn’t have the guts to do it?
There are many companies that those questions should be the only ones asked for prospective employees.
That’s the beauty of small companies, anarchyst. We can’t afford to hire/promote/fire on anything but merit.
Only the big organizations have the luxury of political correctness.
One of the worst companies infested with this nonsense was a small company I worked for. How did they get away with it? They were doing something no one else was able to at that moment.
Thankfully things change in the business world. That exclusive thing they did ended rather abruptly and they were out of business over night. Lucky for me they had fired me a couple of years before that so I was long gone. Discovered their reputation was so bad in the world I had to remove them from my resume because no one would call me (it was my first job out of college).
Someday it will sap the power of those big companies too. Remember they aren’t government agencies. Government agencies are the worst when it comes to that crap.
Unfortunately, above about 10 people, you MUST hire these idiots.
My dad ran a company, HIS company that HE founded & funded & built & staffed. Never got above 9 people so the EEOC shit didn’t apply. All skilled, white males, some with shite personalities, but knew their trade (engineers and chemists and machinists).
I believe it’s termed a “Barrier to entry.” It’s using hired muscle to prevent competition.
And the result is, the company died before my father did, because they couldn’t get any larger (and they did such quality work they reduced the disasters quite well.)