Cold, Callused and Corporate

When I was 17, I worked in an industrial laundry. We washed the linens of several nursing homes and the surrounding hospitals. This included OR linens that the surgical equipment was wrapped in after sterilization/or used during surgeries.

The sorting room was where the linen was unpacked and separated accordingly. Towels in one bucket, gowns in another, sheets, etc. Yes, we saw and smelled everything one could think when one thinks of a hospital’s dirty linen. I am sure my exposure to many things was high.

There was not PPO given (oops correction- hairnets were a must) to us nor offered for us to wear. I do not ever remember seeing OSHA inspect nor saw signage. I am not saying it didn`t exist. I am saying I do not recall seeing any.

I miscarried my second child during my employment there. I want to say I was still 17 or just barely 18. My miscarriage required me to have an emergency D&C because I was hemorrhaging. I believe after my hospital stay, I was placed on 2 weeks leave, may have been more It was 40+ yrs ago.

When I went to the office to bring the Dr. slip for my needed time off. The owner of the company and the boss who hired me was there. He casually stated with a grin… “I hear you had a little dusting and cleaning done.”

With the miscarriage being days old my eyes instantly flooded with tears. His faced flushed. Callous bastard made the statement as if I had gone for a filling.

He apologized, I feel because one of the office workers gasped at his remark. I never had an ounce of respect for him after that.

This same boss paid us minimum wage at 3.35/hr. (more if you had worked years and years but not much more) unpaid lunch, and we worked 52 hrs. a week and mandatory overtime for years.

We tried to unionize and let me tell you the intimidation was fierce. Most if not all of us were either young single mothers or older widowed/unwed women. He threatened to close the place down and we`d be all out of a job. Sadly, the union got voted down, he managed to scare many.

I left there after three years for better horizons and opportunities. (my end wage was 3.85/hr. after 3 years)

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Imagine over 40 years have passed and minimum wage is barely five dollars more an hour. While CEO`s were paid 291x as much as a typical worker in 2023. I wonder how many times more do they make today?

Your sweat equity, health and loss of family time doesn`t even get you a living wage. To add further insult to injury that pay is taxed and divvied before you receive what`s left to feed. cloth and house yourself and maybe a family.

**The Social Security Act of 1935 marked the significant shift in government responsibility, establishing the principle that the federal government played a role in providing economic protection for its citizens.

Reasons for Payroll Taxes and Withholding:

• Funding Social Insurance Programs: these include

• Social Security

• Medicare

• Unemployment Insurance

• Other Social Insurance Programs

• Ensuring a Stable Pay-as-you-go System

• Dampening inflation

• Administrative Efficiency

• Tax evasion

This revenue is to provide public goods and services for the benefit of the community as a whole.

(AI overview) ** information gathered from

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Nowhere did I read tax revenue was to be gobbled up by billionaires in tax breaks nor bailouts. It was to be used as a safety net for we the people. All of us whether Democrat, Republican or Independant.

Imagine that 🤔

Isn`t it nice to receive your $25 Christmas bonus to see taxes taken out? I`ve seen it so many times.

I had another boss (owner of a plastic factory) give us a big speech about how we would need to forgo our Christmas bonus because the company needed to tighten its belt.

Two weeks later he drove his wife’s present in to show us all what a great guy he was. A PORSCHE!!!

Merry Christmas!

I watched a program about big corporate stores such as Walmart- Amazon employees needing snap benefits and Medicaid because they could not afford to get by while working for these places. While they make Billions in profits and that’s after expenses.

These billionaires want more endless tax breaks??!!

They want to cut social programs that our tax dollars were taken from us to feed these programs for us. US not the rich.

I know people trying to live on less than 15k a year.

But we`ll get over it? (Mitch McConnell apparent statement)

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While reading a note by Untrickled by Michelle Teheux I was flooded with memories of my youth and the topic I decided to write about today.

I found her in my feed and found her page interesting. Go give her a look see a lot of informative articles and notes. I just began following her this evening.

✨Be the Light