'Climbing the corporate ladder' is a common phrase that is totally wrong.
There is no ladder, there is a pyramid.
I am not sure if the ladder image was ever consciously devised, but it is definitely deceptive.
It gives us more hope than is warranted that workers can move up.
The true shape of organizations, that of a pyramid, shows us the hard truth.
Each 'rung' is smaller than the lower one, meaning fewer and fewer are able to reach it.
Conservatives talk about people getting better jobs when they are opposing raising the minimum wage without admitting that many will not be able to do that due to the organizational structure.
They also keep hidden their underlying belief that those who don't move up deserve to live a lesser life. They so admire those at the top that they deeply believe that they are superior beings, deserving of the lavish lives they squeeze out of our lopsided economy.
I see them as more just different, with different strengths and weaknesses, than superior, but even if I were to grant them such exalted status, I would still believe that ALL workers deserve a decent, comfortable life.
After all, no matter how skilled they may be, none of these corporate bigwigs could run the company alone. We MUST keep pushing the belief that workers are valuable and deserve recognition commensurate with that value.
We can start by acknowledging the true facts about institutional shapes.
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