TrekWeb.COM Features Headlines YOUR ACCOUNT User Profile | New Acct | Logout Email Password SERIES Star Trek: Voyager ST: Deep Space Nine ST: Next Generation ST: Original Series Feature Films FORUMS Central Board Support Board DEPARTMENTS Reviews Bulletin Board (Talk.TrekWeb.COM) Live Chat Ron Moore Archive ('96-'99) Scriptwriting Bookstore Headlines Archive Features Archive TREKWEB Contact & Staff Info OPINION POLLS Voyager's Final February Sweeps Two-Parter Goes To Work With WORKFORCE: (A) I can't wait 'til next week! (B) Good, but there doesn't seem to be much here beyond nice FX and the ECH (C) Pretty standard (D) Work harder! (F) Howabout some worker's comp for sitting through this?! Current Results PRODUCTS Download these Star Trek ebooks instantly! Order the latest Star Trek books from Amazon.com to support this site! Star Trek: Dark Passions Book One Susan Wright $6.29 Black Star is the UK's largest video store and offers free shipping worldwide! Buy your Star Trek DVDs and videos here! Star Trek: First Contact - Anamorphic Widescreen DVD - Dolby Digital £19.99 Copyright © 1996-2000 Steve Krutzler and TrekWeb.COM. All Rights Reserved. WORKFORCE Constructs Somewhat Familar Yet Sturdy Setup With Consistent Writing and Wonderful Direction Posted: 07:16:07 on February 22 By: Steve Krutzler Dept: Reviews - Voyager TREKWEB TALKBACK (17 comments) Sort Controls: Newest Posts FirstOldest Posts First Threaded PostsNested PostsFlat PostsNo Comments Start New Thread | Help! RE: Corporate Masters By Imbarkus (imbarkus@mindspring.com) at 11:47:44 on February 27 URL: http://imbarkus.home.mindspring.com/library/trek.html | User Info If you believe that each worker in our capitalist system is rewarded on merit then you are exactly the kind of sucker our systems exploits. Middle management in the corporate culture ALWAYS makes more money than blue collar workers, unless like my Teamster dad they have a worth while union to back them up. And there is no evidence that thje work of all these wannabe CEO's is more valuable or produces a better society than the efforts of those who teach our children, transport our goods, assemble our products, and prepare our food. In fact it is my firm belief that the glut of useless, unskilled, politically-savvy management personnel in this country who spend most of their time protecting their own career path and passing on any actual work is what has made "the American Dream" an impossible one. It doesn't take an organised fascist conspiracy. It just takes the proper environment where everyone ends up looking out for number one. But I agree with you in that what would actually make capitalism WORK, and seem fair to the WORKFORCE, the WORKER CLASS in this country, is if advancement actually HAD something to do with the quality of duties performed. Because right now, most folks end up right in the social class they were born into, and the hardships of growing up in poverty are usually enough to ensure that, once grown, a person doesn't have the internal or external resources to escape. You can call that a free market but it looks like a caste system hidden under a big lie to me. And, as to the episode, the presence of an unhelpful "official" denotes the difference between government-sponsored fascism and a system where unregulated corporations make the rules? Please. What a stretch. What we are seeing is no sign of a "state," a fascist figurehead, a dictator, any mention of the rule of law over the actions of these corporations. WHAT WE SAW was companies acting of their own accord for their own labor-force interests, in ways that indicated they had no fear of being monitored or held accountable. What are you trying to convince me? That in this metaphorical world, the government has to REQUIRE a company to violate sentient rights in order for it to do so? Is your rosy view of our system so fragile that it cannot accept a Trek story where unrestrained capitalism is how one society went wrong? I'm not arguing for communism. I believe a balanced system with checks for both business and government is best for everyone. But my problem with "capitalism" as a concept in this country is that it has been sold to us in media for so long, had its meaning muddled and mixed with the definition of democracy, marketed to us as all other systems have been vilified, that it has become dogma to most people. An imposed and instructed set of beliefs that people cling to like gospel when challenged. If something takes that much work to sell it to you, there must be a lie hiding in it somewhere. That lie is "The American Dream." 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