Employment Under A Microscope

Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD


A certain amount of oversight is involved in almost any job. The more important,repparttar more highly skilled,repparttar 141164 more successfulrepparttar 141165 position,repparttar 141166 lowerrepparttar 141167 degree of oversight. Atrepparttar 141168 bottom rung ofrepparttar 141169 economic and social ladder -repparttar 141170 laborers,repparttar 141171 maids,repparttar 141172 easily replaceable positions -repparttar 141173 more watchful arerepparttar 141174 powers that be,repparttar 141175 less secure arerepparttar 141176 workers,repparttar 141177 more personally vulnerable are they to any mistakes made.

When money or similar valuables are intermixed with poorly paid employees,repparttar 141178 level of oversight reaches outsized and intrusive proportions. Diamond workers in South Africa submit to body cavity searches after every shift, a humiliation society normally limits to convicted felons or known drug traffickers.

Inrepparttar 141179 United States, low-level workers in finance and banking are closely observed for cash or figure discrepancies. Too many errors lead inevitably to termination. The largerrepparttar 141180 amounts of money involved,repparttar 141181 more significantrepparttar 141182 mistakes become. A fast food register a few cents out of balance differs markedly from a bank cashier imbalance of several hundred dollars.

The more pure cash is involved,repparttar 141183 more difficulty there is in tracing a paper trail of transactions to establish where a discrepancy occurred. I just returned from three days in Las Vegas,repparttar 141184 American capital of cash. Surely nowhere else inrepparttar 141185 country handlesrepparttar 141186 thousands of hundred dollar bills that change hands in that town, torepparttar 141187 tune of several billion dollars annually.

For years, inrepparttar 141188 counting rooms it was one pile forrepparttar 141189 house, one pile forrepparttar 141190 government, and one pile for "the boys." Untold millions were siphoned off forrepparttar 141191 East Coast crime czars. The government hated being cheated of their fair share. The gamblers could care less whererepparttar 141192 money went as long as they had a fair chance of winning and their play rendered them free rooms, free shows, and free food. It was symbiotic - a mutually advantageous relationship. Any worker foolish enough to try to cheatrepparttar 141193 uniquely expert cheaters atrepparttar 141194 top, found their final reward inrepparttar 141195 unforgiving desert where flesh melts quickly and bone fragments blow quickly away inrepparttar 141196 beds of long-dry rivers.

Thenrepparttar 141197 corporations moved in and "the boys" faded away into their old street rackets andrepparttar 141198 burgeoning drug trade. The corporate-owned casinos are no longer inrepparttar 141199 business of skimming: they can make legitimate returns for their shareholders throughrepparttar 141200 huge returns guaranteed byrepparttar 141201 house advantage in every transaction. To add torepparttar 141202 gaming cash, they moved to ensure a profit in related areas: rooms, food, and shows.

Evenrepparttar 141203 owners and managers, with their accounting-oriented perspective onrepparttar 141204 world, recognize their vulnerability to greed, cheating, and theft inrepparttar 141205 huge cash side of their business.

Casino worker oversight, while not yet approachingrepparttar 141206 body-cavity-search level, is perhapsrepparttar 141207 most organized and intrusive inrepparttar 141208 western world. It ranges from dealers clapping and showing open, empty hands, to two or more floor walkers (depending onrepparttar 141209 size ofrepparttar 141210 jackpot) co-signing on every hand-pay slot win. It involves floor men watching every table bet, box men watching every roll ofrepparttar 141211 dice and its payoff stacks of chips. It requires supervisors to watchrepparttar 141212 floor men, managers to watchrepparttar 141213 supervisors, undercover security men to watch both workers and guests, and eye-in-the-sky overhead cameras that can observe and detect every one of a million transactions per day.

Unemployment Iraqi Style

Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD


Let's put it all into perspective:repparttar U.S. has an unemployment rate hovering at just aboverepparttar 141163 5% level (although much higher in ethnic populations). Iraq has an unemployment rate inrepparttar 141164 75% range.

How on earth do they live?

We are all aware ofrepparttar 141165 difficulties of being out of work -the financial pressures,repparttar 141166 emotional trauma,repparttar 141167 ruin of so many marriages and families, andrepparttar 141168 overall cost to society. The effects of unemployment on personal dreams of success wreak havoc withrepparttar 141169 self-esteem and self-confidence of those without work. In a society that glorifies money, power, and celebrity above all else,repparttar 141170 have-nots carryrepparttar 141171 taint of failure and view themselves as losers. They can no longer compete with their peers, keep up withrepparttar 141172 Joneses, or liverepparttar 141173 lifestyle to which they have aspired for so long.

But if 3 out of 4 of your neighbors, family, and friends are jobless,repparttar 141174 equation changes. You may live in poverty, unsure of whenrepparttar 141175 next meal will materialize, but just about everyone else is inrepparttar 141176 same boat. Begging, bartering, and haggling overrepparttar 141177 exchange of meager basics becomesrepparttar 141178 standard lifestyle. Aspirations of success are tossed aside forrepparttar 141179 more immediate goal of survival. It isrepparttar 141180 few individuals who actually have work and a regular income who arerepparttar 141181 aliens inrepparttar 141182 crowd.

In an economy devastated by war, magnified by an ongoing insurgency, what doesrepparttar 141183 much-touted western world's democracy mean:repparttar 141184 freedom to starve?

A culture in disarray yearns for "the man on horseback." The inequities and internal struggles ofrepparttar 141185 Roman Republic gave birth to a long line of debauched, despotic Emperors. The mass poverty of Russian serfs openedrepparttar 141186 door to Lenin and his monstrous descendant, Stalin. The ruined economy ofrepparttar 141187 Weimar Republic brought usrepparttar 141188 order and security, as well asrepparttar 141189 total evil, of Adolf Hitler. The hedonistic excesses and widespread corruption of Havana produced Fidel Castro. The war-ravaged landscape of Cambodia hatchedrepparttar 141190 Khmer Rouge.

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