Bleeding Us Dry

I’d like to pass along a lesson that I've learned.

When I was growing up, my father used to say, "Don't be paranoid.  People are out to get you."

I always wondered what he meant by that. Seriously, I think most workers in this country are paranoid, very paranoid. And that's why I think Doctor No, aka Alan Greenspan, should be happy — very happy.

Paranoid workers are nervous workers. They're worried workers. They're not all that sure they'll be around a long time workers. Workers like that generally don't get cocky. They don't demand a lot. Rarely ask a lot.

Indeed if the bureau of national labor statistics is right, they don't ask much of anything. Most don't even take their full vacation time. They are content to live with raises averaging less than three percent. And now quietly resign themselves to picking up more of their healthcare tab.

What's incredible to me, at least, is they accept this with barely a whimper.

Why? Because, they're nervous. That's why. They see tons of their colleagues getting laid off. They have friends who've been forced to sell their houses. Their stock holdings have collapsed to zilch. They're like wounded animals protecting their turf.

"Just keep me in this job," they say. "I don't need a big increase, or a fancy car, or all that vacation time... hell I won't use it anyway. Just keep me in this cubicle."

It's why wages aren't budging and inflation isn't percolating.

Now if Cavutoman can see that, why can't Doctor No? Because, I suspect, he'd like to see still more of it — to squeeze out the very last drop of delight he can. For Doctor No also masks as Dracula, sucking us dry until "we" are like him. Indifferent, uncaring, unsmiling — the walking-dead.

A pale imitation of what we could be, but very much the quiet zombies this Dracula wants us to be.

- Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World with Neil Cavuto.  And send your comments to: cavuto@foxnews.com