St. Louis Post-Dispatch Bill McClellan column

Source: St.迷你倉 Louis Post-DispatchOct. 27--Creeping normality is a term Jared Diamond used to describe the way major changes can seem normal if they happen slowly. This explains how things that a society might have found completely objectionable at one time can later appear to be quite ordinary.That term came to mind twice in the past week. Actually, twice in the same morning.First, I saw a story in the Wall Street Journal. The headline was "Caterpillar Races to Cut Costs." You know how costs are cut these days. Workers are let go. That is indeed what is happening at Caterpillar. The workforce is already down almost 10 percent from a year ago. About 13,000 people have lost their jobs. And as the headline suggests, more cuts are coming.Sadly, few of these people will be able to duplicate their old jobs. They'll have to reinvent themselves, tighten their belts and settle for something less than what they had.So it goes these days.The reason that Caterpillar is in a race to cut back is that it posted a 44 percent drop in third quarter earnings. The drop was due to falling sales of mining equipment.The story noted that CEO Doug Oberhelman increased the company's exposure to mining in 2011 with the $8.8 billion purchase of Bucyrus International Inc. That company makes bus-size shovels used to scoop ore. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Caterpillar bought Bucyrus near the top of the mining boom and paid a premium."Oberhelman became CEO in 2010. His compensation was $10.6 million that year. In 2011, he made $16.9 million. His compensation for 2012 was $22.4 million.Think about $22.4 million. That's more than $430,000 a week. Based on a five-day workweek, that's more than $86,000 a day. Go to work on a Monday morning and you've made $43,000 by noon. Have a nice lunch and make another $43,000 by five.It's one thing if a person founds a company. Nobody can begrudge Bill Gates his billions. He created Microsoft, and made it possible for a lot of other people to become millionaires.But a CEO who takes over a company is just another employee. The top employee, but still, just an employee.At least, that's the way people used to think. Not any more. I often hear from people who worry that people like Oberhelman pay too much in taxes. And their heirs might have to pay a儲存death tax. Why do liberals hate success? After all, these successful guys are job-creators.I love that term. It's so Orwellian. Job-creators. We're losing jobs. In this particular case, the ill-timed decision to buy a mining equipment company is at fault, but generally, our loss of jobs has more to do with technology and globalization than with bad judgment in the corner office. It's just the time in which we live.The pain is not shared. The story in the Wall Street Journal noted that Oberhelman's cash compensation was expected to be reduced, but in the unlikely event he is dropped all the way back to $16.9 million, he'd still make $32,000 before lunch.The middle class is stressed and shrinking. But it's been a gradual thing. Like the lobster in the pot, we barely feel the water warming. It's creeping normality. Now the headline is hardly jarring -- Caterpillar Races to Cut Costs.I thought about that and then I came downtown. I ran into a friend who takes MetroLink to work. He told me about a young man who was listening to some musical device. It was loud. Signs say you're not supposed to play loud music on the train. My friend said a couple of people approached the young man and said something to him. He made an obscene gesture toward them. They quickly backed off.That is exactly what I would have done.It is not what my father and his friends would have done. There were things they would not tolerate. Outrageous and rude behavior were among those things. It wasn't just my father and his friends. It was society. All of it.Now we're scared. We look the other way. We keep walking.Of course, surrender has its price. Things get worse. In certain neighborhoods, we've ceded control of the streets. The gangster culture rules. In many public places, we've just about ceded control. A young man wants to ignore the rules about loud music? Fine. We can go to the other end of the car.People in politics don't talk about these things. Not directly, anyway. The shift to the oligarchy accelerates. Behavior deteriorates. None of this stuff started yesterday. By now, it almost seems normal. Almost. Maybe that is a glimmer of hope.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at .stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage