Monday, November 30, 2009

Monday


Today is Monday, and December is coming up. Japan is going to be colored by pseudo-Christmas, a fake, imitation, just an decorative kind, of Christmas. I should say, Japan is very laid back on religion, rather not take it seriously compared to Americans. Examples are Anime and Manga themes, ideas and story lines derive from old legends, myths, Judeo-Christian history, and etc. to compose an work. I heard Neon-Genesis Evangelin became a heated debate that the Japanese are pressuring Christian beliefs. To tell the truth, no, and no one over here cares. No matter what Religious background you are the society will not treat it as ''truth'' but more as a fantasy like figure and will not be too conservative on topics like other nations around the Globe (i.e. Pokemon is not allowed in Islamic society due to their belief that they do not believe in evolution).
Anyways, I will end gibberish here and continue on. By tomorrow I will upload random pictures so please check it out my friends.

Monday is always slow and laid back. Nothing happens but time just passes by eagerly. I really need to start thinking about my future plans which I do not have. I am in my junior year, have to get ready to graduate and also find a place to work (straight out of college grads. go find a perminate place to work during school than to do so when your 25 or 26).

By the way, every time I am in front of a screen, there is always somebody watching my screen. Why is this? Anyways I cannot type up what I want. So... yea, Cheers

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Augor MSK

My new favorite writer, at first I didnt dig his piece styles but they grew on me, his style reminds me where Crep TPG RIP gets his west coast influence from, shits fresh.

Rilla FBSK PBJ

Found this video on youtube, dood has been painting for less than 2 years but has came up quick.

A Very Ginger Summer

Some skater dudes we know put together a couple of videos, check the homies out...

Beer and gals


I dranks three cans of premium beer (an expansive one than the ordinary kind) one day (about like what, 4-5days ago I should say?) and drank another can the next day. I didnt have enough, but to get more it costs money which I didnt have. This sux, I thought but who cares. The world still spins and revolves even if I dont have anything to drink.
So where did I leave off last time?
On the 21st and 22nd of Nov., KSUA had a school festival. I cannot upload photo of the event because it includes pictures of people so instead I will upload other pictures. During the festival, I was a member of a Mochi stall (crushed and smashed rice) making refreshments for shoppers. What you do is first boil some rice until it is soft, and then smash them in a rice mortar until it becomes somehwat of a puddle. Then, with two people you smash and turn the puddle until it is dense but not too hard and soft enough to eat before it becomes too cold. It is tiring because the rice itself is hot and heavy, while the tool used to smash the puddle is heavy also.
The best part of the festival is, people you know are dressed in costumes and it is funny to see them. I enjoyed myself seeing hotties dressed up in a outfit that turns people on.
It was great two day entertainment and I wish next year will be even better!
Ordinary school days follows after the festival. To not make school life boring, I ganged up with couple of Freshmen, Senior, and Juniors to plan an event to decorate the school with an art work Cuz' its an art school, why not? Art students do not have much chance and place to present their works and we thought that was an weird thing, and also students do not have any chances to present their work in campus, outside of class. No personal exhibition and personal work is not encouraged. So what the hell? This is still in a planning stage and the school is sooooo much of a wuss and have a such a passive attitude on education, this group may suffer making they're goals a reality. We are still negociating with the school to let us use the vacant campus space and allow nobody to use the space for other deeds. Students try to use the space for something else but usually the school dismiss them and let somebody outside of campus use the space.
What a boring school. Its like a fools gold.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Music and Video

Here's another video with music. Just testing out a different format. The music was done in Ableton Live, the video is just some cut-up stock footage I found on the internets. Again, if it doesn't work say something.
T&nk$, 3nj0y.

BTW!!!!!!!!
Thread and Butter (formally of Shredded Lettuce) will play their first show at the Monster House, Dec. 18th. 9 p.m.
BE THERRRRRRE!!!!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Night Of BroSU






It happens once a year in a Midwest town known as Columbus, Oh to the world, or Buckeyeville U.S.A to the locals. On a usually warm fall Saturday the years old Ohio State vs. Michigan rivalry is in full effect. Filled with scarlet and grey, maize and gold, booze and weed, young and old, drunk and sober, finus and mungus, the buckeye freaks come out at night. I would know for sure, I woke up to these fans playing beer pong and taking vodka shots in my living room at 11am, and I almost felt I needed to join them. On that note it is about that time that I observe these beings, but only as a reporter for the TiPsetGang, wish me luck. DrinkDrankDrunk....

Joe Jackson - One More Time

And thanks too Taco Bell, ive had this track stuck in my head all week...

Outkast- West Savannah

Diggin on this track right now...

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Inspire me, now!







Another site I spend time on when I should be doing my job. Inspire me, now! displays a variety of pieces and styles that keep me entertained when my office job cant. I believe a few local artist from my neighborhood have had work posted on here, check it out for yourself.

Wiz Khalifa- Burn After Rolling













This has been in the CD player of the chevy since friday and I burnt it on thursday. Wiz Khalifa has become one of my favorite rappers of recent in less than a week, which is impressive. Some have compared him to Cudi (Wiz>Cudi) and I can understand that. The Pittsburgh native has a dope sound and is a double threat singing and using auto-tune on certain tracks. Please click pic for link and be on the look out for more on this dood his second album Deal or No Deal drops on November 24th.

I Know You Dudes....





I think we have ran into these dudes multiple times in the streets....maybe at a local house show!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Funky Cutz/Holiday Season

It works? It works. I'm gonna try posting a video, just a test with music and video to see if these formats will work. Let me know if any one can't see/hear/see or hear this:










Family is a beautiful thing, so this holiday season remember...
Stay the f**k back!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Tonight The Clampdown At....


My favorite bar plus good tunes and faces I wanna see equals a good time, be there and you can have fun time with me!

Dungeon Family







I remember my dad giving me this CD when I was either a Junior or Senior in high school. I knew who the Dungeon Family was but at the time I was transitioning from my Pink Floyd phase to my stint as Nirvanas biggest fan. Around the time I was living at the 4th street mansion I rediscovered the CD during a pregame session with CunePluto that involved Fifa on N64 and 40oz King Cobras. It quickly became the theme music behind the forming of the black squad click (Cune, M.Davis, and I) and to this day one of my top 10 favorite hip hop Cd's.

Female Appreciation




I would have a crush on the female lead from a film based on race relations (see post below on Jungle Fever), but Annabella Sciorra is fine and I had to show my respect.

Jungle Fever/Do The Right Thing


Recently I have been digging alot of Spike Lee films, these two above have been my favorites. I remember people talking about jungle fever when I was kid, many saying that I had it. That's probably the case being that I don't have a problem "dating outside my race" and the fact that most women I have dated have been of the Caucasian race. The actual film, Jungle Fever, was very different from what I remember when I saw it as a child, the message definitely struck a chord with me and the ending was something I didn't expect. Wesley Snipes as a prominent black man with a beautiful black wife is something you don't see in films often, and the fact that he had an affair with a white Italian film I'm sure made some black women cringe. As for Do The Right Thing I don't remember watching it as a kid, the only thing I do remember were people quoting it all the time. This movie had a strong message dealing with race relations between minorities, becoming a parent and/or adult, and police brutality. My favorite character would probably be Radio Raheem, who made a statement about his love/hate brass knuckles that I can really relate too. This film also introduced us to Rosie Perez who played a fine young puerto rican mother, and Martin Lawrence who played a neighborhood knuckle head fitting to his personality. Spike Lee is the man and I wish more of his films would touch on subjects like these did, maybe I am just late which is probably the case.

Chromatics





My lady friend Monica introduced me to this group, Chromatics, awhile back after a wild night of running around downtown Columbus, drunken dancing at Skylab, and driving up Summit St the wrong way. These are my two favorite tracks and I dug for sure on some late night tip ish, ya feel me...

Artist: Tyson Anthony Roberts





Anyone who knows me can say that I admit often that I am not a true artist. Though I have put together some impressive pieces and have brought original style to the plate, art is not as natural to me as it is to others. But over time I have learned to appreciate art and its many forms. Recently I have been into Impressionism, a style that embraces natural light, grays and other dark colors, and simple short brush strokes. I can thank Boooooooom.com for my introduction to the artist above, Tyson Anthony Roberts, who helped me appreciate this form of art with his works of landscapes and nature. If you haven't checked Boooooooom yet then you are missing out.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Tonight At The Legion Of Doom


Tonight at the Legion Of Doom, I like loud, fast, harsh, hard, hardcore, aggresive, punk music in a basement. Though a no alcohol rule has been in effect at the legion for awhile thats cool and we should respect that....so on that note pregame at Ravari Room in 30 mins....GO!

The Beastie Boys get Gangsta!!!!



this track is one of the top 300....This... Is..... Brooklyn!!!!!!

Cune Pluto album of the week: Wale-The Mixtape About Nohting

OK OK OK....I know this has been out for over a year now, but this mixtape has shown itself to me as a proper album over the last week. Take away the fact that it was released for free, take away the fact that Wale got really no money from it, take away the fact that there was none if any radio play(although there were 3-4 tracks that could've been singles), and you got a studio release. Wale does now have out a proper studio album with "Attention Deficit', but this "mixtape" is a certified classic, and damn well should be, a proper studio effort from the D.C./ Maryland MC. Every track on this mixtape is a banger. The mixtape doesn't have that mixtape feel, it really feels like a studio release under a small label, by an MC who is just gifted. And doesn't give a fuck about grands.... He's just focused on a Grammy.

Taking voice samples from the uber popular sitcom "Seinfield", even the theme on the first track, and turning them into commentary on rap, racial bigotry, and life for the rap head, make this release something more than just a Lil Wayne mixtape showing your verbal skills and punchlines. It's a bonafide demonstration of what a rapper could, should, and must be!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A post from from "Surgent Major" the first one

Yeah wat's up my dawg. Its my first post on the PlutoGang, and for people who are thinking "who the hell is this?" I am the dude who is part of the Pluto Gang living in Kyoto, and was used to be called Surgent Major or something like that because I wore an dress uniform as a Jacket.
Anyhow, my life was crazy after moving back in 2006. I will not gointo details today but write down what happened after leaving OH and arriving in Japan. At first I was living in Tokyo, Koganei, in a dormatory for students who used to live overseas and are examining for Schools in Japan. (In this dorm I was treated not that well, to make things worse, a kid who shit'd his pants in middle school who also lived there spread roomers and talked shit behind my back. )
I attended Yoyogi Seminar (an school that prepares you for University enrollment exam) along with 2 others from the dorm including the shitter. The school was not fun until I made friends.
Most of my time in Tokyo, I tried to be positive but became a little depressed. Later, I started to give up on examing and not cared if I got in or not.
The same year I arrived in Tokyo I examed and got into Obirin University. There, I was in department of Theatre. I examined for Kyoto Saga University of Arts the same year while attending Obirin (I was not positive that I would get into Obirin so I turned in my resume after examined for Obirin before scores were notified) and attended another prep school preparing for enrollment exam. By this time I was tried of life and was too depressed to think about anything and I totally gave up on examing. I didnt care of what school I got in or not, I just wanted to move out of Tokyo.
In 2007, I quite Obirin and moved to Kyoto (later I regreted this action) eager to study design. I entered the department of Tourism Design (dont ask me what the hell it is, the entire department is a joke to me now that I know the school, and totally believe the existance itself is a conspiracy theory). Within the deparment, there are six major studies called "seminars" that you could be in. Currently I am in the Product Design Sem., trying to figure out X's and Y's of design. Since the department does not have much to offer, I was very active in co-curricular activities and activities out of school studies. Since I am not used to Japanese people, particularly people in the Kinki-Kansai area of Japan, I had very large walls to blast.
Currently I am working on making a pseudo replica of a Marshall's Sword of the former Military, the IJM. It is my personal project I am working on along with creating new Kata (martial arts form) for Swords putting in every little details of my knowledge of Martial Arts.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Random Flicks


Blackberry flicks from the neighborHood....

Tight Pants Graffers...




Graff Life bruuuuh...

More Joy Division







What I have been bumpin all week....

Freeway Feat. Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel

The Cunesta nigga posted this track on StalkBook today, this cut is one of my fave summer time bangers. Everyones verse on this is so ill. Jay I dont really care to much for anymore new CD was alright, Free got a mixtape out im bout to look up, and Beans might be signing with G-Unit and beef with Jay now? My have the times changed, this shit still goes hard tho...

Wiz Khalifa/Empire Of The Sun





The kid M. Wortman hipped me to this Wiz Khalifa track jus now. Heard about dood on Nah Right but haven't really peeped him till now, but its kinda dope. Also posted a video from Empire Of The Sun their song, Walking On A Dream, was sampled for the chorus of the Wiz track above. I heard the Empire Of The Sun track awhile back on a Dave Espionage mix and dug a few of their other songs, but they are both dope so check em out.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

A Separate Reality


The Polish Oner a.k.a Tyler P. gave me this book, A Separate Reality, awhile back because he couldn't get into it, usually any book from his library I find insightful. I really didn't read much over the summer due to work and my social life, but there was something about the first few chapters that caught my attention. A few years ago I remember reading an article about the author, Carlos Castaneda, and his name helped influence my determination to read the book. This weekend I had the honor of attending an "alcoholic retreat" which gave me plenty of time to finish the book, and it was well worth it. I am not going to give away my interpretation of the book, but I will say that it was the type that made me reevaluate how I live my life, and what I want out of life. I know a few you would really enjoy this, T. Hamen for sure, if you come across it check it for yourself.

Little Brother - Home (feat. Joe Scudda)

Yall already know I fucks with Little Brother, well after being locked up for 4 days and spending that time in Akron, OH it feels good being back in Columbus, OH. This is my track right now, this is my city, and damn it does feel good to be home.

Attack Attack - Stick Stickly

This is a video by a local and popular band.....wait only thing correct and embarrassing is that this band is local and they do have fans. Attack Attack is an american "Metalcore" band from "Columbus" New Albany, Oh, enjoy and beware this video may make you chuckle...and yes you did hear auto tune and no T-Pain did not cosign this band.

Beastality is Wrong....





When I first heard about this I was disappointed, but once I discovered it was a black man that was the criminal I was sad. Niggas don't fuck horses, leave that for old white man...jus sayin. I mean come on I hate to go off topic that beastality b.k.a Zoophilia is wrong, but the fact that I assumed an old white man did this it didn't bother me much. The reason I feel this way I think is because the other day I was discussing with a co-worker (a white-male) how shocked I was when I discovered the D.C. Sniper was a black man (click link for more info). I'm usually not the type to assume black and white people don't do the same fucked up shit, cause niggas will be niggas, and white people can do some nigga shit and by nigga I mean niggerish, and by niggerish I mean ignorant. Now I feel like im being a nigga by sounding ignorant and ranting about this nigga violating little(big) Sugar the Horse...back to the subject folks this is just wrong and im gonna leave it at that.

Carhenge

Read about this while slackin off at work a few weeks back. The Carhenge of America is a replica of Englands Stonehenge. Just goes to show how creative and original us Americans really are.

Ridle DROIDS


At the moment this is my favorite graff writer/artist/tagger/vandal. Something about the 2nd piece just caught my eye. I know I have said our crew is a bombing squad, but lately its burners like these that make me want to bring out that blackbook steeze I usually don't share with the public...we will see tho.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Different Trends in American Labor Force Organization

This paper will discuss the development and evolution of modern mass production. The framework for this discussion will discuss three different periods of mass production, first the drive system, second the system of high-wage mass production during the WWII era, and finally the current period of deindustrialization in which our contemporary economy is being transformed. To help guide the depth of this discussion, certain concepts of each system will be explored, such as hiring and job security, means of eliciting consent and effort, importance of ethnicity and race, the various advantages for the worker and or employer, and lastly how and why each system has changed and transformed into the current era of deindustrialization. The most influential concepts that affected these labor organization transformations were structural changes in society. These changes included the rise of the modern bureaucratic American government and increased college education; these changes transformed the drive system by the first half of the nineteenth century; the contemporary period of deindustrialization is largely caused by the opening of previously closed markets, such as China and the former Soviet Union. The labor in these markets are serving as a comparative disadvantage for American labor and have caused the change from the high-wage labor system in America to contemporary deindustrialization. (Friedman, 51)
What have been the major changes in American society? Claude S. Fischer asserts that a major difference for the labor market in the twentieth century was the rising importance of education. (Fischer, 19) Discussing specifically changes in American labor Fischer asserts, “employment moved from farm to factory to office, and jobs became increasingly specialized. Most of the novel, growing occupations involved coordinating the work of others and analyzing abstract information.” Fischer also discussed wage inequalities:
“Pay disparities narrowed from 1929 to about 1970 and then widened again. In 1950 high earners those at the eightieth percentile in earnings, made four times as much as low earners, those at the twentieth percentile. The ratio declined to three-to-one in 1970, but the rose back to four-to-one in 1990 and reached 4.35 to-1 in 2000. How much workers earn depends on their job and their education; both increasingly influenced earnings after 1970. Pay also depends on a worker’s gender, race, age, and region, but those differences became less important over the century…….There was more inequality in American’s paychecks in 2000 than had been there in 1970.”
(Fischer, 97,117)
The workforce also shrunk and expanded over the century. It shrunk because young people increasingly went to school, and people also began to retire around age sixty-five; it expanded because of the increasing numbers of women joining the workforce. Fischer discusses increasing education thus:
“men younger than twenty-five and older than sixty were much less likely to have a job or to want one. The expansion of secondary schooling in the first decades of the century and of higher education after 1940 kept ever more young men (and women) in school and out of the workforce.”
(Fischer, 102)
Married women even with young children who worked became normal toward the end of the century, this was because of the increasing independence of successive cohorts of women. (Fischer, 104-105) Unionization increased with the high-wage high production system transition, then decreased with deindustrialization. (Fischer, 113) Fischer also illustrates a “nearly linear” increase in greater specialization of American jobs throughout the century. (Fischer, 108) Fischer also recounts dramatic changes in “How Americans Worked” during the twentieth century,
“In 1900, 11 million Americans --one third of the workforce--farmed their own land or worked someone else’s farm; in 2000 farmers and farmhands were barely 1 percent of the workforce…. [twenty-first century American workers] make fewer and fewer things at their jobs; instead, they boss, teach, and take care of one another (and they go out and buy things from elsewhere). In more formal terms, this “service economy” employs people to work with other people-- in healthcare, education, food services, and the like--and to work with information in telecommunications, entertainment, research, financial services, insurance, and real estate….From 1935 to 1985, manufacturing grew, but services grew faster, overtaking manufacturing in 1970.…By 2000 making things was a thing of the past.”
(Fischer, 107)
The transitions described above mirror the time of the transitioning systems, from 1900 to the late 1930’s the drive system was in place; as our nation came out of the depression, a new system of high-wage and high production occurred; then lastly as more and more people began to compete globally for manufacturing jobs, the US economy became more about what services can be provided rather than manufacturing specific things. What specific governmental policies affected these transitions? Well the GI Bill in 1944 helped expand higher education, also in 1937 the government instituted the first minimum wage legislation, it was equivalent to $3.10 in 2000 dollars, it reached its maximum purchasing power in 1968 at $8.00 in 2000 dollars, and by 2000, it was $5.35 which was less than anytime after the late 1950’s. (Fischer, 119) Other legislation like the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 made “job sharing a national policy.” (Fischer, 122) The government also helped facilitate a modern society in four other ways: by providing low interest loans for homes, the Employment Act of 1946 in which the goal of the economy became maximum employment instead of full employment, and lastly the National Defense Highway and National Defense Education Acts. Our government had just applied principles of mass production to infrastructure, education and individual stability. Because of more government intervention, “recessions became less frequent and painful after the first third of the century.” (Fischer, 126) What effects can be seen that support that American society was transitioning toward more service based labor often requiring greater education? Well Fischer discusses two things, first that compounding the effects of the shrinking blue collar jobs was that they increasing lost the ability to work long hours to compensate for low wages; Fischer also described a trend of educated “homogamy,” college educated men tended to marry women like them (working and more educated). (Fischer, 124) Thus society was beginning to value more globally competitive jobs, and increasingly we double our labor force by opening previously closed opportunities to women.
We will first discuss aspects of the drive system. When it came to hiring, accounts in our class record that it was very informal and that the pre-existing connections of an individual (such as members of one’s family already working in a job) can help one obtain a job. Job security existed as long as one did not injure themselves, they contented the foreman, and that the product they were selling was in demand. Consent was taken by management-- thus management controlled most if not all of the labor process. People needed a wage to live in this new consumer society. As far as one needed their job and had no or few alternatives, management could do whatever they wanted. There are accounts of variation of jobs by race. The influx of successive cohorts of Europeans such as Irish people slowly replaced some jobs largely reserved for African-Americans. Generally both did lesser valued work than people identified as traditional whites. Largely the factory was run under the guidance of the foreman. The advantages for workers were that they worked at a job and got paid. There was little or no government regulation in favor of the workers at this time. The readings from our class help more fully inform our understanding of the drive system. Sanford M. Jacoby asserts, “the foreman was given free rein in hiring, paying and supervising workers. To the worker, the foreman was a despot-rarely benevolent…. The foreman’s control began literally at the factory gates.” Sinclair recounts of a worker named Jurgis who observed this aspect of the drive system,
“[the factory] owned by a man who was trying to make as much money out of it as he could, and did not care in the least how he did it; and underneath him, ranged in ranks and grades like an army, were managers and superintendents and foreman, each one driving the man next below him and trying to squeeze out of him as much work as possible. And all the men of the same rank were pitted against each other; the accounts of each were kept separately, and every man lived in terror of losing his job, if another made a better record than he. So from top to bottom the place was simply a seething cauldron of jealousies and hatreds; there was no loyalty or decency anywhere about it, there was no place in it where a man counted for anything against a dollar.”
The advantage for employers was strict control of a worker, but a growing level of conflict emerged. The dehumanization that typified this system could not be permitted to continue in a democratic society that was become increasingly connected. The need for workers to express themselves and be treated more humanely is was what transformed the drive system into the high-wage mass-production system.
This new high-wage system helped create government bureaucracy and societal mass consumption. The drive system was simply too dehumanizing and inefficient. Because workers had no way to express control over the product they created, the previous situation could be described as an innately “Them or Us” atmosphere. With the application of Taylorism or “scientific management,” Management desired to make up for the dehumanizing atmosphere with higher wages and the creation of personnel departments to help deal with conflict. These high wages helped create a larger version of the “Tupelo” model, in which the principles of reciprocity are somewhat executed into large scale societal empirics. Because worker’s had more money, the society in which they lived thrived and they consumed more and many other people in their local, regional, national and eventually international community benefited. By giving more prosperity to more individuals more people could consume because increased consumption required new jobs to support consumption. Hiring and job lay-offs depended more on the economy and whether there was economic growth in the specific sector of the economy to which the factory belonged. Job security became a little more legitimized through the extensive growth of labor unions, even in the public sector. Consent had to be bargained for by management, particularly through processes like collective bargaining. In exchange for all these new advancements for workers, one might think that they would work harder. This was not the case. Many workers found loopholes to help extend their new earned power. Consent was more egalitarian and increasingly the situation was viewed as every member of the process was part of a team. Ethnicity and race still mattered for non-whites. For Italians and Irish for example they began to be assimilated into the label white. Unfortunately for non-whites, race still mattered and determined advancement, pay and equality of opportunity, though the Europeans with different English accents were increasingly viewed as white. (Fischer, 56) This new system was largely a win-win situation. Management saw an increase in their wages, though percentage wise it was not as great as could be. The workers saw an increase in their value, expressed through more organization, higher wages a more open environment, the atmosphere could be described as though it was not a great job we appreciate you. The assigned readings recount the increasing application of the scientific method to the labor process. Two key leaders have work systems named after them, Henry Ford and Frederick Taylor. Speaking on Fordism, Fischer states that Henry Ford’s employment revolution made it so many workers could keep a job indefinitely. (Fischer, 128) Harry Braverman described Taylors’ scientific management. Braverman states, “the practitioners of “human relations” and “industrial psychology” are the maintence crew for the human machinery.” To Taylor, control over the worker had to be absolute so that management could control every aspect of the process, hopefully standardizing products and increasing efficiency. A quote from Taylor helps illustrate this,
“The only thing I ask of you, and I must have your firm promise, is that when I say a thing is so you will take my word against the word of any 20 men or 50 men in the shop. If you won’t do that,
I won’t lift a finger toward increasing output of this shop.”
Taylor also introduced the idea of “a fair days work,” or “all the work a worker can do without injury to his health, at a pace that can be sustained throughout a working lifetime.” This concept of a “a fair days work,” though noble was often taken to an extreme as the worker loading 47 ½ tons of pig iron per day illustrated. Taylor’s method was rather simple and was aimed at progressively de-skilling the workers, so that they can be interchangeably replaced quickly and efficiently for any reason-- just like the machinery they worked. Taylor had a three part method, first the “dissociation of the labor process from the skills of the workers,” second, “separation of conception from execution,” and third use of this “monopoly over knowledge to control each step of the labor process and its mode of execution.” Knowledge is indeed power. The Rivethead and Efficency: the fix articles also helped us increase our cognizance of this new high wage system. Rivethead begins by describing a period of prosperity at a GM plant. The trucks being built were in such high demand that many workers frequently got overtime. These benefits were not enough, eventually the narrator deviates by having a double lunch time, and then “doubling up” (only working half of a shift). He eventually takes time off and then is rehired in the axel department and in the end is transferred back to the rivet line where he is content. His whole account is full of alcoholism and the rationalization thereof, racial integration, fraternal bonding and getting by. I mention this article because it shows how good the times were for relatively uneducated American Workers. The Efficency: the Fix article not only recounts observations about “gravy,” but also the observation of many different shifts in rules that management implemented to improve efficiency. Obviously he felt these rule changes accomplished nothing and his quotes from co-workers like hank show a cult of this attitude among his level of workers. He concludes with this quote, “Do we see, in the situation studied an economically “rational” management and an economically “nonrational” work group? Would not a reversal of the labels, if such labels be used, find justification? Essentially the ways management acted to increase efficiency did not work and were irrational, the way the workers circumvented and avoided new rules were rational. How interesting? Historian Alex Keyssar summarizes the high wage era thus,
“The policies and reforms implemented in the 1930s did not solve the problem of unemployment…The state, tacitly recognizing the permanence of a reserve army [of workers], offered financial suppot to its members, taxing citizens who were employed in order to underwrite the expense of maintaining pools of surplus labor. Indeed, it was precisely the thrust and function of this political economy to perpetuate the existence of a labor reserve while minimizing the suffering, the anger, the anxiety, and the threats to political order that the presence of a reserve army inescapably engendered.”
(Fischer, 128)
Thus the work became more human in nature than the drive system, this was because of increasing bureaucracy and organization of society and the economy. Unfortunately this system that expanded the middle class would be replaced by deindustrialization.
As America grew and the rest of the world industrialized, the power in the world system became unstable and a new hegemonic war occurred. America was the victor and until the beginning of the end of the Cold War, the new high-wage mass-production system would remain in place. As the Cold War ended and nations like Japan and Germany reindustrialized, new labor markets like Russia, China and even Mexico began to compete for American jobs. This comparative disadvantage became a force with which American companies based domestically could simply not compete. This lower cost of labor globally (because everyone now wanted to work in the capitalist system) created a major structural change and caused deindustrialization.
Deindustrialization is typified with a decrease in factory or routine labor jobs. These jobs can be done anywhere in the world. The products can then be shipped back to the U.S. market for cheaper than manufacturing it within the U.S. market. Hiring largely depended on competition. For white collar jobs such as “symbolic-analysts” which develop our bureaucracy, employment is stable and well compensated. As already mentioned, a job that can be done by any labor force in the world will be done where it is cheapest. Job security was dependent on two things. First, whether it is competitively worth manufacturing the product in that location, and whether there is a contract stating what the company is responsible to provide to its workers. As we learned about at the once radical “Lordstown” GM plant, techniques like attritionary outsourcing occured. Attritionary outsourcing is when people are not laid off but replacements are not hired. Vallas also discussed the different work systems by using the concepts of despotism and hegemony. Eliciting consent largely depended on the level of organization of workers and employers and whether or not there were contractual specifications between the two interests. Generally employers tried not to take an adversarial approach with employees and preferred to use management tactics to trick people into doing what they wanted. Vallas discusses the introduction of the “team system” in which management tried to introduce norms to every level of production. Unfortunately this system did not generally work because of the application of the “lean system,” workers did not like two competing concepts so the team system usually ended as a “Trojan Horse” for management. To the contrary, the process known as “whipsawing” did sometimes occur. Because of the civil rights movement and the government legislation such as the Civil Rights Acts, discrimination in the work place was illegal. The implementation of Affirmative Action programs guaranteed employment for minorities through the use of quota systems. Conditions by the late 70’s into the 80’s improved for non-whites. Deindustrialization had many advantages for company profits, which inevitably increase with a decrease in cost. For the workers, whether times are good or bad is largely determined by how competitive they are in the new global economy. For many blue collar workers, times are becoming rough and now people are becoming more protectionist in tone and some new government regulation may occur. This system is interesting and must be studied more closely. If we continue on our present course, then things may become much worse. The author of The Work of Nations, presents a paradigm shift, he advocates it is not important where a product was made, but how the work enabled the worker to work on different tasks. As the world becomes ever increasingly connected, foreign and domestic corporations are converging, and national competitiveness is more dependent on skills than investment. The author states, “that the strength of the American economy is synonymous with the profitability and productivity of American corporations is thus an axiom on the brink of anachronism.” To the study of jobs we view three categories business class, labor class, and service workers. Of the kinds of service workers, there are two important ones: Routine service and in-person or not particularly skilled and the last category are symbolic-analytic services which are more skilled such as lawyers and engineers. As deindustrialization began, factories known as Maquilladoras in Mexico sprang up as Sallaz recounts. These were the first step to outsourcing American jobs.
Essentially the evolution of these three systems are because of the social evolution of man. As logistics, the related development of technologies (most importantly space transcending) mass communications, and levels of organizational development both public and private, occurred the world was transformed. Each system is just the same system but with different rules. As the drive system became increasingly inhumane and hated, because of our democratic system the government and corporations changed themselves and the system. The government increased regulations and protections, while corporations tried to increase efficiency and lower costs. Eventually though, as the nation-state became more integrated into the global system, concepts like comparative advantage have destroyed the old system and created a new one. The future of the global system will be on bureaucratization and mediating inherent conflicts between the two sides of labor and management each with seemingly increasing power.
In conclusion, as human society evolved, efficiency and profit were naturally sought by elites. This quest for more profits inevitably changed the world around us.
















Bibliography


Fischer, Claude S. and Michael Holt. Century of Difference: How America Has Changed in the Last One Hundred Years. Russell Sage Foundation. New York, New York: 2006.

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.
Version 3.0. Picador. New York, New York: 2007.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Art by Paula Liz Torres

Paula Liz Torres, is a Puerto Rican born, Baltimore, Maryland based artist who kills it on the daily commenting on issues past and present concerning her native people, particularly Puerto Rican Women. Although I have never been able to see a piece of hers in person( and she used to live on the floor above me), just from the photos on her blog, which for some reason I can't post for the gang.... I can feel the emotion, and deep sense of pride she feels for her people, the passion and the love she has for her medium. I'm no art critic, But I know heroin and sex in one when I see it, and Paula Liz Torres is dope as fuck! Check out her blog at paulaliztorres.blogspot.com/ and show my Homie some love. And oh yeah, she's a dime piece!

"Whoops! Doesnt look like you need that Artificial Rectum after all"

A Japanese man who was diagnosed with rectal cancer, is now suing the hospital for 35 million yen for misdiagnosing him with rectal cancer and giving him an artificial rectum. It was found out only after the surgery and the artificial rectum had been in place that it was evident that there were no cancer cells present in the old rectum. I would put up a picture....But I really don't want to know what an artificial rectum looks like.

source: www.news.com.au

This is quite possibly the corniest thing I've ever done in my life


Ok, so have you ever been in a situation where you feel like you're vibing with someone, but you just dont quite know how to approach the situation...Maybe you're shy, maybe you don't want to be disrespectful, or maybe you are suffering from a lack of confidence. I don't which one of these symptoms of scaredy cat I am suffering from, but I know I got the disease. I met a really cute girl who we'll call "514" who I had a brief conversation with while sharing a cigarette. I was tempted to make a move...But I'm at work, and I wasn't quite sure if she was feeling me. I feel like I am writing to an advice column, so whats up with the advice? Should I make a move or fall back when I find myself in situations like this in the future? And on a side note if you think this is corny (I know all the homies will), try working in a hostel. I challenge you! And make sure all your homies is with you!