Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), the famed and multi-talented English writer, had a strong opinion about the way the world works, to wit:

“Promises and Pye-Crusts, are made to be broken.”

And, so it is today with contracts in the world of modern enterprise. Contracts are promises. The longer the time horizon, the greater the likelihood that its promise will be broken, in part if not in whole. For some time, America has been watching the unraveling of its formerly largest and strongest companies. In the news this week, it’s the auto companies which are breaking their promises to their workers. Imagine devoting your entire working life to a job based on a promise. Imagine then, when your working life has ended and cannot be repeated, you would be told that the promises couldn’t be kept.

In this context, broken promise is more than broken pie crust. It results in broken lives. Remember, it’s not just Chrysler and GM, the auto companies. It’s not just about organized labor. It has occurred time and time and time again throughout history. All too often the worker winds up with nothing at all; the auto workers are in fact lucky to wind up with anything at all.

Enough should be enough for every fair-minded American. No more promises of money and benefits. Every payday, let’s just take the money and run. That would mean removing the control of all benefits and promises from the hands of the employers. Cash for work. We can all have a system that then divvies up your pay into wages, health insurance, pensions, and every other benefit.

Harold Geneen, former Chairman of International Telephone and Telegraph, seems to agree with Jonathan Swift. Geneen said:

“It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises — but only performance is reality.”

Click here to contact your representatives in Washington, D.C.:
Our Elected Officials. Tell them you prefer to take the money and run.

– Byron