As
Santa lay in bed, he began to think about all the Christmases he had
experienced in his lifetime. “You know, Valada, I remember when we were young,
and we didn’t have all the help we have today. Of course we had a lot of
volunteers and people with goodwill in their hearts to help us along the way.
We all seemed to believe in the spirit of Christmas back then, Christmas was
celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ. The whole concept of giving
presents was to honor Jesus as our Savior and celebrate his birth. Somehow we
have lost the meaning of Christmas. It has been distorted through time by
becoming too commercialized. Today, people are more interested in making money
in the spirit of profits than giving in the spirit of love! Soon as Halloween
is over, the Christmas commercialism starts in all the stores around town.
People forget about other holidays and can’t wait to put up all their
decorations in the name of Christmas. There is so much advertisement in
department stores, that the spirit of Christmas is often overlooked by the
greed of profit.”
“Now
Santa, there you go again, worrying about the future. You need to rest and not
think so much about tomorrow,” his wife said. “I’ll call a special meeting with
the elves tomorrow,” said Santa. “That’s the only way I can get their opinions
and points of view about a change. I know they’ll be disappointed, whatever the
decision or outcome. Many of them feel they are a part of American history and
tradition. The old-timers don’t believe that their product manufacturing should
be outsourced to other countries where they feel the quality of work is
inferior to the elves’ craftsmanship. One thing about history,” Santa said, “is
the only thing you can count on as being constant is change. It may alter the
viewpoints of people and history, but it’s often slow for the people to
accept.”
The
next morning, a special meeting was called by Santa in the elves’ toy workshop.
Santa began by explaining, “A new technology has brought about a change in our
production and distribution system. We can no longer compete with many foreign
markets throughout the world. Many nonunion shops are making their products
cheaper by lowering the wages of their workers. Competition is good, as a rule,
if we all play by the same rules. However, when you take away all of the
benefits and retirement plans, lower the workers’ wages to a mere pittance, and
make them work twice as long for less pay, it forces our workers to experience
diminishing returns in their benefits and future income.” “What are you trying
to tell us, Santa?” asked a senior spokesman for the group of elves. “Are we
all being terminated after all these years of faithful service?” asked another
elf. “Well,” said Santa, in a pleading voice, “it appears that technology is
replacing the skills of the working person. We can no longer compete against
automation, new technology, and a host of other factors that the average worker
has to go against. For example one or two of these machines can do the work and
production of hundreds of our workers at a fraction of the cost. There is no
downtime for sickness. We don’t have to pay them any of the benefits like
hospitalization, medical care, and retirement. The machines can work around the
clock, day and night, seven days a week. Every conceivable product made by the
worker can now be duplicated by the machines at a fraction of the cost. I don’t
like it any better than you do. But facts are facts. We are entering into a new
world order where the products that are being made will be influenced or
controlled by the mass of the people controlled by their government. I just
want to say and make you all aware that I still believe in tradition and the
American way. But it appears that our time has come and gone. It is apparent
that technology and machinery are becoming more productive to society than the
skills of the people. Our values are outdated and antiquated. There is simply
no way that human beings can compete against new technology and the paradigm
shift that is changing our world.”
“Santa,
what about all of our skills and talents, not to mention the pride we have put
into our work throughout the years?" asked another elf. “It seems that
pride and skills are just human traits. Although they have had great value in
the past and have been most instrumental in quality control and productivity,
they have to compete when it comes to product costs. The bottom line is that
customers want lower prices. It doesn’t seem to matter to the customer if the
product is handmade or machine-made, as long as the outcome appears to be of
the same quality.” There was a loud sigh heard throughout the crowd as the
elves took off their hats and bowed their heads.
“I
will talk to the stranger again tomorrow,” said Santa, “and express your
concerns. If there is any way possible to merge the machinery and elf
workforces, and perhaps salvage some of the benefits, we might be able to
negotiate a new contract. I will let you know the results tomorrow.” As Santa
left the podium, he wiped his wet eyes with his handkerchief. “I must talk to
Valada about our future, and see if she has any new ideas,” he thought to
himself.
(Story by George F. Kohn, author
of Holiday Favorites series.
To be continued.)
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