As someone working in a bank, I've experienced some of the fallout of the current economic crisis at first-hand. We are waiting to see who will be made redundant from the current round of cuts. Many others have already been made unemployed without even being involved in the financial sector - even more innocent victims. In all of this, I've noticed that often employees are not people any more - they tend to be "resources", just like paperclips or carbon paper. And "right-sizing" which happens to result in a reduction in your need for resources, sounds much less odious than making real people redundant.
 
I've a great interest in social history of all kinds. The book that I've just finished reading covered the history of a railway line in Scotland that (like many) closed in the 1960s. It showed two pictures, separated by a few years. The first showed a very proud station master in front of a quiet station. The station and its buildings were immaculately kept, with a bush on the platform trimmed like a piece of topiary from the most elegant of gardens. This station master was a man with a great pride in his work, who had quite possibly worked for the same company for many years. The second picture showed the station as the wrecking crews tore up the line. The now closed station lay derelict and the bush had reverted back to something shapeless and wild. The station master was nowhere to be seen. And this was done by a nationalised company run by our government. What chance for those who work in the private sector where employers have even less accountability? Perhaps such changes will always be a necessary part of the changes in our society wrought by economic and technological "progress". But isn't it sad that the people responsible for contributing so much of their own lives to their employer get discarded at the first opportunity? Strangely, employers often appear to wonder why their remaining staff show less loyalty to the company. Loyalty is a two way street.
 
I'm certainly not advocating a move away from capitalism. I've seen little to convince me that the alternatives work. But can't capitalism have a social conscience? Can't it show a little more compassion and care for the people it needs? Does it always need to grind the "little people" into the dust so that the fat cats can enjoy their large bonuses, big houses and fast cars? As Fred Goodwin and Peter Cummings enjoy their enforced early retirements on obscene pensions, those same employers get ready to sack large numbers of people who did nothing to cause the current crisis. Many of those remaining in employment will see their employers strip them of their much more modest pension entitlements through the culling of the final salary pension scheme. Once again, greed is good (acknowledgements to Gordon Gecko). But, of course our employers still say, people are our most important resources. Their actions show that only a very few are important. The vast majority still seem to come in below paperclips and carbon paper in terms of perceived value.