Here's a story...

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!"

-Sir Walter Scott

I've been recently laid off. Specifically, I was working for a casino. You know, one of those supposed "recession proof" type of businesses. This was the third round of layoffs in a year, and unfortunately for me, I didn't make this last cut. Sure, they gave me severance, as long as I signed all eight pages of their bullshit, which mainly pertained to me agreeing not to make disparaging remarks about the company... which I soon will be in this blog.

When I talk about eating shit, day in and day out, and how we are treated as workers, what happened at the casino last year, is a perfect example of society being irresponsibly asleep at the wheel.

Back in late summer of '08, the casinos in the Midwest tried to remove the $500 loss limit, via "Proposition A". If Prop A succeeded in passing, guests would be able to blow their entire life savings on any game in the casino in twenty minutes and still have time to go take out a 2nd mortgage on their home, come back and blow that as well.

Here is the number one reason employees were given by the casino to support Prop A: Job security. And when I mean support, the casino supplied all employees with the tools needed to get out into the public and get people to vote yes on Prop A. Employees were asked to wear shirts, in public and on the casino floor, go out into the community and hand out flyers, yardsigns, buttons, all supporting Prop A. This was all legal, as far I know. There were restrictions, however.

Come November, Prop A passed by a margin of %56.2 in favor of Prop A.
Two weeks after Prop A passed, the layoffs came.

Some of the same people who were out in the community, doing all the dirty work on behalf of their employer, get their walking papers two weeks after Prop A passes, after they were all told that Prop A would create job security for these same folks.

Talk about being propagandized and shit on. No big surprise that the layoffs came after and not before Prop A was put to vote.

While I may not have been directly affected by the layoffs, I felt for the workers who lost their jobs. I kept my tongue in neutral and sucked it up. People were happy just to have their jobs.

And as far as the public goes... they're asleep. The same people who just lost their jobs wish they had the extra money guests could waste on gambling and apply the same monies to paying their bills instead.

What ruthless scavengers we are.