Robert E. Lee

    Robert E. Lee was my older brother.  I attended his funeral in Tulsa, Oklahoma last week.  The services were very nice, and attended by many friends and family. Bob was part of the Greatest Generation.  He was a veteran of WWII and proud of it.  He believed in putting God, family, and country before personal interests.  He was 89 years old and had lived a full and active life in his own home until entering the hospital thirteen days before his death. He took three exercise classes at the Y three days a week.  He even took care of his own yard, pool, and hot tub until the end.  He greatly enjoyed playing in the pool with his children, grand children, and great grandchildren.

Bob was in high school when Pearl Harbor was bombed.  He immediately enlisted in the Navy, but finished high school before being sworn into service.  After Bob graduated from high school, he received some college education through the Navy pilot training program.  There were too many Navy pilots in training and Bob was offered a commission in the Merchant Marines.  He served to the end of the war on a tanker transporting fuel and other highly flamiable liquids.

After World War II, Bob went to work for Douglas Aircraft in Tulsa. He worked in a plant represented by the United Auto Workers.  Bob got promoted to management twice and sent back to labor twice. He refused the third time they offered a management position. The labor contract had been changed so his seniority with labor would stop if he took the management position.  Bob spent his entire career working in the same plant. He survived the McDonald merger and the takeover by Boeing.

This career path worked for my brother Bob, who was nineteen years older than me.  Bob retired at sixty-one with full pension and benefits. At eighty-three, he told me that he'd received more money from his pension than he'd received in wages for all the years that he worked. We may never see that situation in manufacturing again.

Bob and I were raised on Iowa farms, which our father worked, but never owned.  Our father felt a high school education and going to work for a big company with security and benefits was the best way to be set for life and retire from that company.  This was a good option for the working class America in the 1940s and 1950s. The 1950's were one of the greatest times of prosperity the United States has experienced.

With the changes in business, manufacturing, and unions, anyone joining the work force today should not count on being able to retire from the same company.  I discuss this in my book, Business Fits.  Mergers and acquisitions are big business, and the only way they make money is by eliminating costs such as duplication in personnel. A lot of people lose their jobs. Unfortunately, the higher you've been promoted in your company, the more vulnerable you are to having your position eliminated.

Many businesses downsize in order to stay solvent in tough economic times. We see entire plants shut down with production moved to other states or even out of the country. Sometimes companies just go out of business. Increased technology and specialization is often good, but job descriptions are changed or eliminated with new technology.   Many people are put out of work through no fault of their own.

Our government and representatives from both parties have not helped working middle class America.  The rich have gotten richer and the welfare society has grown because of politicians buying votes with Free Stuff.  The working class continues to be squeezed.    

Our Federal government is out of control.  The debt is over $18 trillion and will double in the eight years Obama is President.  It is time for some real change if we want to return to prosperous times like the 50’s with good-paying jobs available for anyone willing to work for a living.