Poetry Corner: “In the interests of productive behaviour”

In the interests of productive behaviour

Motivation
goals
group dynamics
profit sharing
job satisfaction
tasty tidbits to woo the working class
bribery for the belligerent
soothed with technocratic brews
psychological trickery
blessed in the holy catacombs of management classes
where ambitious wear Hugo Boss socks (as they can’t yet afford his suits)
grovel at the swill buckets of swindled social mobility
fed by Harvard Business School priests
sacrosantly selling communion to the highest bidder
of course

Robert K. Stephen

Poetry Corner: “Evening Management Classes”

Evening Management Classes

greedy grasping suburban sniffers
assemble after work
haunted by prospects of lower class blues
fired by ambitious dreams
ontological drama forgotten
in the dance of dollars
the future of the senior management team
shines like the star of Bethlehem Steel
clamouring to absorb the techniques of worker manipulation
and win that VOLVO XC 90
respect, dignity
wholesome men and women of the community
not even the imported Italian fragrances
masks the smell of their shit

Robert K. Stephen

Poetry Corner: “Woes of the protesting Protestant grave searcher

Woes of the protesting Protestant grave searcher

Journey to find father cremated in 64
soon lost
amongst 14,867 interned Catholics
some snickering avenging certain historical losses
a gate
and the wrong cometary obfuscate the search

Robert K. Stephen

Poetry Corner: Frustration of a Poet…..”

Frustration of a Poet who in a narcissistic moment might join an advertising agency

Is the poet’s gross national product
limited to 87 poems
and from that point on clever loquaciousness
which for all concerned
might better have remained as crumpled balls of paper

Robert K. Stephen

Poetry Corner: “The Job Interview”

The Job Interview

Yelps and barks of circus seals
tenuously balancing sparkling balls
adequately
but
not dangerously ostentatious
don’t ruffle the placid master
your audience
but then
don’t underplay
even though
regulations and conventions
dictate a certain humility
statutory interpretation on the trapeze act
the tumble can be wicked
return to delaying promises and options
prudently promised
optionally false
for the survival of the dream bureaucracy
depends on that illusion
and the salaries of the wizards
and silver haired corporate beggars
rattle tin cups against the rages of the market
discretely of course
the pounding on the door louder
of nepotism victims
who contemplate the tragedy
thought personal
yet almost universal

Robert K. Stephen

Life at Up Up and Away Investment Management International: Chapter 34 How to escape largecorp

Chapter 34

How to escape largecorp?

  • Death

Most largecorps have generous group life insurance policies that can be topped up based on variables of your salary. It makes sense if you have family obligations and children to support you max out your coverage. You’ll have to pee in a bottle, give blood samples and subject yourself to a terribly complex and invasive medical questionnaire but getting the maximum coverage may be a very sensible expenditure. Suicide usually disqualifies any death payout.

  • Termination

You may be subject to a downsizing event or an individual corporate hit. In such instances you will be entitled to statutory and common law severance benefits.  The common law benefits are roughly equal to one month of salary per year of service but expect to be shortchanged in a salary severance game, so best to consult with lawyers who specialize in employment terminations. It is an investment well worth making.

  • Lottery wins

The odds are not good on this one.

  • Inheritance

Again, a bit of a long shot but the more wealth you accumulate the faster you can escape the death grip of largecorp. In my experience there were three of them. One permitting me to purchase a house and the next one to liquidate a mortgage and the third one to add to a retirement nest egg.

  • Save your ass off

If you are thinking of retirement you must put aside vast quantities of money. Of course, if you enjoy cat food and dog kibble Mcspend like a fiend and hope for governmental support. Max out on your TFSA and RRSP. If largecorp offers any matching contribution of your pension plan contributions don’t be a fool so take advantage of it. It’s free money so as to speak.

  • Marry rich

Most of us marry for love rather than money! Of course, most of have never had that opportunity of marrying into money and are too stupid to realize its advantages if we are lucky enough to stumble into it.

  • Disability

We have discussed this previously. There is the possibility that long-term disability might give you up to 70% of your salary until you reach 65 at which time the benefits cease. The chance of this happening decreases the younger you are as that only means a longer payout period and long-term disability providers are in the business of making a profit and not providing “charity’. The longer you are potentially on long- term disability the more aggressive the insurance company providing the long-term disability benefits will be in trying to terminate the benefits. I spoke recently to R who had started receiving long-term disability benefits at 52. He was subject to intensive surveillance and countless harassing IME’s (independent medical evaluations ordered by his insurance company). If you are in your early 60’s the payout period to the cut-off date of 65 is rather less than a payout period starting at 52! R settled with his disability insurance company provider for several million dollars.

  • Criminal activities

Since various governments now control narcotics, numbers and liquor there is scant opportunity to muscle in unless you want to risk hard drugs, armed robbery and prostitution. Not willing to take it up the ass in a maximum-security institution?

  • Retirement

Congratulations if you have made it to retirement age. In 30 years in largecorp I have seen perhaps one authentic retirement but even there I am not entirely sure it was voluntary! Cheap wine and cheese reception for one and then a Costco cake and tea for the other. Both were in my mind thinly disguised terminations “with dignity”. I am coming to the impression that “retirement” only exists for members of the Senior Management Team!

  • Joining a cult

Perfect if you want to renounce sex, booze and rock n roll.

  • Establish your own business

You can either incorporate and hire yourself out to the highest largecorp bidder or try and establish your own business. The sad reality is that as a mom and pop operation at best you are a service provider to largecorp!

Of course, can you ever escape largecorp or are you bound to never-ending engagements with it?

New York Legislative Assembly Bill 416: Sweeping Public Health Measures

Although not yet law and without even a co-sponsor of Bill 416, the bill grants sweeping powers such as:

  • Removal and detention of cases contacts and carriers who may be a danger to public health in the event that the governor declares a state of health emergency due to an epidemic of any communicable disease
  • Persons or groups of persons can be detained in a medical facility or other “appropriate” facility for as long as the department of health may direct as long as the person is contagious
  • If the person or group is ordered to be detained for less than 3 business days that person or group I entitled to a hearing
  • Should a detention order be greater than 3 business days the group or person subject to the detention order requests a release the governor must obtain an order the governor must obtain a court order authorizing the detention. The governor can keep extending the detention order upon further court orders provided hearings are granted to the person or group
  • The governor may make orders requiring enforcement of any order which is “necessary or appropriate” to prevent spread of a communicable disease including forced quarantine, testing, examination, treatment, vaccination, medical treatment
  • Forced medication shall require a court order

So the question is whether this amounts to good public health control or a violation of civil rights an argument I will not delve into but I recall in Canada there is no power, at this point, to compel vaccination or a specific medical treatment or to compel confinement to a medical facility.

You may recall that recently the New York State Bar recommended compulsory COVID vaccinations.

Poetry Corner: “The Orange Toad and the little man with a funny moustache”

The Orange Toad and the little man with the funny moustache

Both started with election wins
One succeeded with a coup while the Orange Toad lost an election and called foul
but desperately summoned his militia to overpower democracy
Both had their goon militia to beat, intimidate and threaten
Both created phantasmagorical enemies to rally their masses
Through social chaos power maintained amidst different socio-economic classes
and both loved social clashes
The little man with the funny moustache launched a war of iron and steel
The Orange Toad a war of vindictive words

Hatred is their moral currency
Divide and conquer
Bully and beat
Cultivate the right
Demean and destroy the left

The little man with the funny moustache demonized and murdered a category of many
The Orange Toad simply hated and mocked

The little man with a funny moustache built nasty camps fortified by towers and barbed wire and millions fell but the Orange Toad let a nasty bug take its toll
The Orange Toad promised a great wall
The little man with a moustache on The Continent and the Orange Toad afar
On history they left a scar
While not the same
They both played a dangerous game
Let history decide what they had in common
other than inspiring rock bottom.

Robert K. Stephen

Poetry Corner: “Too many apples and grapes later”

Too many apples and grapes later

A gasp
thunderous deafening roar
burning acrid gas
hot molten lava
slides down the precipice

A sigh like the spring wind
and the disaster is sucked down into the bowels of the earth
only
the warm human smell remains

Robert K. Stephen