I'll chime in from personal experience of working to help two friends start successful businesses, mid level management of a multi million dollar company and several small business attempts that I have made myself.
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SOWT, was spot on with his post regarding greed at the executive levels. Any time you have share holders, or a multi partnership of a profitable company, regardless of several hundred, thousands, millions, or even billions, the overall focus is to make more profit for the partnership or shareholders. It's not to improve the worker bees quality of life through better working conditions or better income. The employee is a liability to the over gains in profit, either it be with benefit packages, increased salary (reduced profits) or in regulatory issues. This is why many jobs become sub-contract, or why many companies will look to staffing (temp workers) and many cases pay a slightly higher cost for that temp but avoid the liability and long term costs. That is just how it works in big business.
Now there are the exceptions of large private companies, family owned, ground up owners, who do tend to take much better care of their employees, or have a sense of loyalty to the employee. But this is not the normal and very rare.
Small business tends to be different, normally very few employees, with much smaller profits, and where the profits must be shared at all levels, or people don't show up to work b/c the can't buy gas or afford the cost to actually show up. Small business employees normally have to work harder, do more with less and be conservative in all aspects, as the profits/capital is not there to absorb extra costs, etc.
Generally once small businesses grow into high profit, or sustainable companies, it becomes the employees who struggled to get the company going who benefit and receive the better salary/benefit package. Or the company gets sold or divided into a shareholder run corporation. Where the original employees who did the suffering, suffer more b/c generally they are training their replacement and on the way out the door.
Greed and too much focus on profit, is IMO, a major problem.
However, I've also had three different businesses I've started up that did not do so hot, I was more focused on being fair to people who worked for/with me. I was too busy bending over to meet everyone else (other companies, service providers, and customers). I think that greatly affected the out come of two business attempts.
So I do think there is and should be a common ground, meet in the middle approach to big and small business. But I also think for that to happen, Andrea for me equality in salary break down, you can't be on the bottom bitching to the top. You have to make it to the top, and remember being the little guy, not become the greedy "it's my turn to get mine" kind of guy.
However, most likely if you take that approach, you won't be there very long, as the group signing off on your check, will probably not buy off on that, and will be greedy and want the profits. As they should, b/c at the end of the day, profits is what business is all about...
