A plan for a private welfare system

[flaja]

Originally Posted by Musicinabottle

You don't think it'd be cheaper to feed and house people from our country in need, if we shipped them to China? If you allowed private companies to run welfare, that's what they would do I bet. Surprised they don't ship prisoners over there for some financial savings!

I recently read a book on the history of the Macy?s Department Store. This company was a pioneer in the field of improved employee relations once the Strauss family took over ownership.

Some of the things that Macy?s did for its employees:

1. Set up campground resorts to give employees a low-cost vacation option.

2. Set up a cafeteria so the lower-paid employees could get at least one decent meal a day at very low cost.

3. Set up the first mutual aid society in America to provide retirement and burial benefits for employees.

Nathan Strauss helped build a Jewish settlement in the Holy Land before WW I.

One of the Strauss brothers (I cannot remember which) set up factories to pasteurize milk after several of his own children died from drinking tainted milk. He sold pasteurized milk to the public at practically no profit because his faith told him it was the right thing to do. And when the government finally decided to make a law that said all milk had to be pasteurized Strauss gave his milk factories to the government when he could have had a monopoly on the retail sale of milk.

A while back I read a book, Remembering Woolworth, and I was flabbergasted at what this company used to do. Up until the 1960s all of the pre-filled Easter baskets that a Woolworth store sold were put together on site. The store?s employees would begin assembling the baskets in January to have enough ready by Easter. No American company today would spend the money necessary for this kind of labor.

Also, the bigger Woolworth stores used to have a live piano player to play Christmas music. Now you count yourself lucky if a store goes to the trouble of playing piped-in music over its PA system.

Furthermore, even Woolworth employees staged sit-down strikes in the 1930s they still had the utmost respect for their employer and they were concerned about the public?s opinion of them and the company they worked for. Striking employees paid for everything they ate from their store?s merchandise and they made a point of keeping their stores clean and saw to it that the animals in the pet department were well cared for.

But today most Americans companies are like Walmart.

[HiHood]

Originally Posted by flaja

Is the Mormon welfare system limited to Mormons? Will the Mormons help someone who is not a Mormon? I?ve read that the Mormons have community canneries in some places, but only Mormons can use them.

Even if what I propose here were to be set up as a church, I wouldn?t necessarily limit its welfare beneficiaries to church members, nor would I require members of the alpha organization to hire only church members for the sake of having a greater opportunity to spread the Gospel. I know all to well how certain churches refuse to give any help to people who are not members of the church. These churches turn my stomach.

Yeah, a lot of things turn my stomach but I am not sure, I just know that their system works pretty good. A system that works, WORKS even if you hate those who invented it, yes? I wasn't suggesting you or anyone else become Morman, and I never said that I was a morman either, I merely stated that they have a good working system. If one was designed with the same basics, perhaps the "have to become Morman to use it" part could be left out.

[Musicinabottle]

Originally Posted by flaja

I recently read a book on the history of the Macy’s Department Store. This company was a pioneer in the field of improved employee relations once the Strauss family took over ownership.

Some of the things that Macy’s did for its employees:

1. Set up campground resorts to give employees a low-cost vacation option.

2. Set up a cafeteria so the lower-paid employees could get at least one decent meal a day at very low cost.

3. Set up the first mutual aid society in America to provide retirement and burial benefits for employees.

Nathan Strauss helped build a Jewish settlement in the Holy Land before WW I.

One of the Strauss brothers (I cannot remember which) set up factories to pasteurize milk after several of his own children died from drinking tainted milk. He sold pasteurized milk to the public at practically no profit because his faith told him it was the right thing to do. And when the government finally decided to make a law that said all milk had to be pasteurized Strauss gave his milk factories to the government when he could have had a monopoly on the retail sale of milk.

A while back I read a book, Remembering Woolworth, and I was flabbergasted at what this company used to do. Up until the 1960s all of the pre-filled Easter baskets that a Woolworth store sold were put together on site. The store’s employees would begin assembling the baskets in January to have enough ready by Easter. No American company today would spend the money necessary for this kind of labor.

Also, the bigger Woolworth stores used to have a live piano player to play Christmas music. Now you count yourself lucky if a store goes to the trouble of playing piped-in music over its PA system.

Furthermore, even Woolworth employees staged sit-down strikes in the 1930s they still had the utmost respect for their employer and they were concerned about the public’s opinion of them and the company they worked for. Striking employees paid for everything they ate from their store’s merchandise and they made a point of keeping their stores clean and saw to it that the animals in the pet department were well cared for.

But today most Americans companies are like Walmart.

Different thinking today for sure. Companies often take out life insurance policies on the employees for themselves should you die! Your write up reminds me of the Hersheys company as well as lots of others such as Zenith, who took care of their employees. Zenith even built small devices used in bombs dand other things during WW2 and didn't charge the goverment. They even helped out families of solders and gave the solders their jobs back when they returned from the war. Not today!

[flaja]

Originally Posted by Musicinabottle

Different thinking today for sure. Companies often take out life insurance policies on the employees for themselves should you die! Your write up reminds me of the Hersheys company as well as lots of others such as Zenith, who took care of their employees. Zenith even built small devices used in bombs dand other things during WW2 and didn't charge the goverment. They even helped out families of solders and gave the solders their jobs back when they returned from the war. Not today!

When my mother was the comptroller for a multi-million dollar private country club her employer had a life insurance policy on her to compensate the "company" if she had died before they essentially forced her into retirement when her health would no longer allow her to work 50-60 hours a week.

I don't know how long it lasted, but Milton Hershey was childless and when he died he left his controlling interest in Hershey common stock to a non-profit private school he and his wife had set up. The school then owned the Hershey company. A while back there was talk that the school was going to sell common stock to the public.

I would assume that during the War Zenith hired women to replace the men who went in the service. If that were to happen today and a company fired a bunch of women to give men their jobs back there would be no end to lawsuits.

I wish somebody would write a book explaining how American companies used to have a social conscience and used to care about their communities and their customers. Maybe today's corporations could learn something.