Pine Knot News - A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news

In the 19th century, when companies were owned by individuals, there were men who were proud to be able to provide their employees a living wage. Henry Ford, originally violently anti-union, found that by paying his employees good wages it enabled them to buy his cars, making him even richer.

With the advent of corporations, that human contact was lost. Now companies are owned by faceless investors — possibly even you and me — and profits are the driving force while executives are paid obscene salaries for reducing the costs of production by any means possible. That usually means labor...