Several points are brought uw with this week's article.  But, I'm only going to address two of them.  We find less than ethical behavior by a major international corporation, potentially fraud if you will.  And we find a discussion of the differences in wealth creation and wealth destruction.

Without going into great depth, there has been a statement floating around for years (and is very hard to pin down) that 50% of the total US GDP is collected as taxes by various local, regional, state, and federal governments.  So, 50% of the entire revenue of our country is collected as taxes.  Add this to the amount of time spent by the wealth creating group (example: 1.3 million man years per year, just for IRS filings) and we come up with less than half of our economy is being used for productive work.(notes)

So what can you do?

• Don't work for the IRS {1}
• Don't work for the government {1}
• Write letters for improvement to governmental organizations you deal with
• Get involved with politics {2}

{1} Dry up their labor supply and maybe it will be so expensive for them to operate, politicians will devise some other (less wasteful) mechanism for collecting taxes or operating.
{2} In a good way.  Become a politician because you want to actually help society rather than sup on the pork barrel trough.

Now on to less than ethical behavior by a major international corporation:

While I'm limiting this to just contractors, pretty much the same applies for regular employees as well.  The short answer is find a new company to work for.  And here are a few thoughts to help you move successfully down that path:

• Don't get pissed off {1}
• Don't advertise that you are looking for other employment
• Put in your 40 hours a week {2}
• Do exactly what you are told
• Don't invest any more of yourself into the organization {3}
• When you do find another job, take all your remaining vacation, and give your two weeks notice to coincide with the end of your vacation {4}

{1} What's the point?  Okay, so you have spent years at this firm, and you did think it was a great place, but they've proved otherwise.  Understand that they may be reasonable again in the future after management has changed, but until then, there is no real point in suffering though their folly.
{2} Most of the contractors I know routinely work an extra hour per day and don't bill for it.
{3} There is not much point of making recommendations and such, if the relationship is no longer mutually beneficial.
{4} Yes some contractors get paid vacation.  Not many though.

And now you are saying, "But I've never been an employee like that."  Good, and you don't want to be either.  This is only to maintain your sanity until you can find some other company to work for who will treat you like a human instead of like a raw material.

Be safe out there,

M.J. Taylor

Notes:
- It costs $225 billion per year to comply with the IRS, Nightly Business Report, February 09, 2005.
- 2002 US GDP is 10.44 Trillion per year.
- 2002 Total Filings per year: 226,609,232
- Estimated Preparation Time, Form 1040:  11 hr., 38 min., from 1995, 1040 Forms and Instructions.
- 1.3 million man years = (226,609,232 * 11.5) / 2000 hours
(all data from the IRS): back to text