Posted by Editors on March 22, 2008 at 10:19:26:
Do We Want Another Generation of Wage Slavery ?
This is an offering to describe, in common sense terms, our nation, our society, and the role most of us play in it..., so that rather than helplessly standing by, watching and listening to the so-called government and TV "experts" telling us what is going on, and what the politicians in this government are doing about conditions..., we , ourselves, can do something about our steadily declining life conditions.
The absence of a true democracy has led us to all the social problems we today suffer.
Currently, We are facing what many economists project will be a massive depression. We have been assaulted by what the Bush government calls "Terrorism.," a fearful stage in our lives brought about by our “out of control” political government.
We have our own personal problems keeping up with our daily expenses to maintain a decent life standard for ourselves and our families...
To do something constructive about getting out from all this..., and making a better life condition for our kids and theirs..., we have to know how We, the everyday common folk, fit into all this..., and begin to listen to our own common sense solutions..., rather than depend on TV's "Talking heads," and the government's political voices. And equally important, we have to know how we can organize ourselves to make the necessary changes in how we want to govern ourselves rather than be governed, as we now are ... so that We, the People, have a direct voice and vote in all matters that affect our lives.
Were we to have the power to govern ourselves, surely we would not be making decisions that will harm our own, and society’s well being. It's that simple.
As a nation primarily of people who work for a living…, WE, the People in the MAJORITY are, in the classic sense…, of the working class. We are very different and apart in terms of wealth and social and political prominence, from those who, historically are known as the “capitalist class.
So, along with our neighbors, friends and working colleagues…, to be pro active in making our lives better, what SHOULD be OUR main political, economic and social goals in order to live and work in a society of individual and social freedoms for all our citizenry?
Needless to remind ourselves, the present system of economics has failed to reward our labors with a sane , prosperous and peaceful society. Fact is, We, of our working class, possess all the labor power that is the PRIMARY force which makes our socially necessary industries and services work, yet, in this kind of system, it is not easy for us to make it from day to day.
We worry about our futures, and those of our family. We know we have little to say about what our employers and the government does. We know We are mere “spectators” when it comes to making decisions that lead us into wars. We know we can be fired from our jobs whenever our bosses decide it is in “THEIR” own best interests. Corporations do this all the time, and We accept it because We have been told, “That’s the way it is.”
Do We have to accept all this without protest? NO! Can We do something about it? Yes! How?
First, know the roots of our problem. Second, get together with others of like mind…, organize around a plan, a program that can address our economic and government failures…, and, in the good ol’ American way of using our Constitution to change our institutions, legally and peacefully…, We CAN make good things happen. And in the process, We will begin to understand that, once organized, We DO have the power to make good things happen.
Ordinary common sense, as well as universal tenets of EQUALITY and JUSTICE, affirms that We, as a distinct class, the MAJORITY class, should have control of priorities in the planning, production and distribution of all goods and services needed and wanted by our society. But we don’t, and that’s OUR problem! Once We recognize it, We can begin to bring about the necessary changes which will enable us to use the tools of democracy to make things right for ourselves and our society.
First, We must recognize that the rules of the present economic system do not respect our individual and society’s special needs. The way the present system sets up our wages as payment for our labor power makes it near impossible for most of us to have all of life’s necessaries without being forced to borrow monies to obtain them .
And when we are forced to borrow from a bank, or use the plastic, we pay for it with interest, more dollars we can never spend on our own needs…, which only adds to our debts for future repayment…., which is another way of saying that we are literally using our FUTURE labor powers to keep up with our present needs…., that is, if we can "sell" ourselves and our labor power to whoever can use it.
Imagine, we have to "sell" ourselves to someone who will use us for their own business purposes? Somehow, we never think of ourselves as a commodity, same as any other item being bought or sold in the market. But we are!
Have you ever heard the term…”Labor Market?” That’s how We are thought of whenever corporations need workers. In fact, today, because Microsoft needs computer programmers, but Bill Gates doesn’t want to pay the wages established for American programmers, he, along with his corporate managers, are telling the government, the politicians, to let into our country programmers from other nations, to be hired at lost cost wages…, and the politicians ARE considering it!!!
It’s a no win scenario, no matter how you view it. How can we save for the future when our FUTURE earnings are already being spent on our borrowings? We can’t!
In this year 2008, America’s working people have LESS personal wealth than ever before (Personal wealth is that amount of money values which is the difference between what you owe plus what you have on hand for personal, day to day spending for vital needs, like food, shelter and clothing.) and whatever values you may possess, like equity in home vale or personal bank savings) In fact, our nation’s majority citizenry has MORE debt in home mortgages and credit card spending than ever before, and more debt that ever before. And when put all this into the context of today’s massive home mortgage foreclosures…, it becomes very clear WHY people are losing their homes to the privately owned banks and other corporate lenders.
In a few months the Federal Government will be handing out to many of us our own tax monies so people can afford foods, rents, gas to get to work…, all being funneled through the retail outlets which must buy from the controlling corporations…., to distribute all the goods and services they get from the corporations in whose factories and offices We, for a wage…, produced the stuff !!!
Imagine such a system? We make the products and services in places which are privately owned…, in places where we have NO decision making empowerment …., and have no real powers to make our work places safer, more comfortable, in which to make all the things which are then sold in the markets to people like ourselves…, and the profits are taken…, not by those of us who actually do all the work to make and distribute it…, but by the capital investors…, people who do none of the actual work…, but have the “paper,” the common and/or blue chip stock…, which the “system” then gives them a “piece” of everything We make …., which, in effect, under capitalism…, gives them legal OWNSHIP of whatever we make…, and they profit from OUR labor, for which we are given a “wage,” which has the real value of a small fraction of the things we actually produce.
This form of legal robbery, called a wage, has been publicly acknowledged by the New Jersey Department of Commerce, and it is the economic RULE of capitalism everywhere.
In NJ, in order to increase tax ratable income, NJ’s officials have announced to the nation’s corporations…, “Come to the Garden State…, and for every dollar spent on wages for needed Labor Power…, expect BACK more than four or five dollars in values added to the raw materials used to make all the things to be sold in the markets for private your profits!!!
Now, ain’t that a great deal? Spend a buck…, get back four or five? That’s the way immense private wealth and social power is gotten in this system ..., for the capitalists …, the Warren Buffetts, the Bill Gates…, and the ten thousand other capitalists who hold the controlling stocks and get all the benefits., while the millions of Americans who do all the work…are paid off in livable, adequate or bare survival wages .
So, why are so many of us so reluctant to change this system to a social and economic democracy …., eliminate the unnecessary capitalist “paper” which literally enables such holders to steal our product …, an immoral relationship deemed “Legal, Just and Democratic” under capitalism ???
Is it that the majority of Americans simply are not aware that WE CAN bring about a sensible system in which We can have a new way …, one in which everyone who contributes to a socially needed industry and/or service, receives back ALL the values (things we need and want) produced, both directly in immediate consumer spending units, and indirectly by having free access to all of the public facilities such as health care, education, recreational and cultural outlets which we decide to be of individual and societal benefit and enjoyment.
The new way is based on We having the Constitution-ensured democratic tools to decide among ourselves, in our communities, and in places where we work…, in the factories, offices, laboratories, the mills, mines, the farms…., and all the necessary distribution outlets…, what priorities we want to set before us in order to have peaceful and prosperous (for all) nation of responsible freedoms based on the democracy tenets which serve the best interests of all of us.
After all, We would never decide on programs which would hurt ourselves, yet, We, today, actually allow all the destructive ways of the systems of economics…., capitalism…, and the political government, to do just that… , which allows the continuation of the unfair wages system, the production of goods and services for the profits of owners who never place a hand on a tool which is used to produce the goods which afford them their wealth and social power.
We need not stay with such a system. Our Founding Fathers encouraged us to change our government whenever We found it no longer served our needs. AND who can deny that today, these forms of government and economics no longer serve our needs to have a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society?
One of our societal problems is how We, the people who work for wages and commissions, view ourselves in relation to the economic system. There is a clear distinction among the millions of people who own STOCK in our industries.
There is the guy who works for a living…, who saves and buys a few shares in AT&T…, and occasionally gets back a few buck in stock dividends…, called capital gains…
And there is the other guy who has the bucks to buy a thousand shares of stock…, who rakes in a few thousands of dollars in capital gains…, and then is the guy, and/or the family which owns tens of thousands of shares in an industry…, who pick up millions of dollars in capital gains…, and never have to work a day in their lives… We know of such people…Most are so private we never see their names in public…, but some we do., like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett…, and some who play in politics, like the Kennedy family…, or the Governor of NJ…, Jon Corzine…, who, before he became Governor, spent 60 million dollars of HIS OWN MONEY to become a Senator from N.J.!!! Clearly, We, the working people, are not in that capitalist league.
But the majority of the relatively few thousands of capitalists who are the dominant capitalist powers keep pretty much in their own circles, rather low key, and were it not for the palatial mansions in which they live…, even when these are well hidden on hundreds of acres of secluded woodlands…, unless we delve into the statistics of how wealth is distributed in our nation …, we would never know they exist…, except for the generalized notions we have when we talk about the rich and the super rich…, descriptions that are common to us, but don’t seem to make an impact on us as to our own roles in this present system of our society.
The point of all this is simply because some of us …, wage workers ..., own a few shares in Exxon or the A&P, it does not place us in the capitalist class. , but there are PEOPLE, workers , who will swear they are “capitalists,” and they HAVE the stocks (all $200.00 dollars worth) to prove it!!!
We must become more acutely aware of OUR place in this system…, and apply to ourselves our own sense of fairness and justice, and how we want to be treated as individuals whose dignity and self respect is utmost important to our own self esteem.
Wage slavery is not the best road to our own self respect. We know, instinctively, that on our job site we are not in control of our own well being. The bosses, be they “good guy” managers, or “fair” foremen…, are in charge of us… And while it is true that we needn’t put up with it…,sure, we can quit …., but that would only force us to find another job site where the same interpersonal relationships…, ”Boss and Worker,” exist.
Under this system, there is NO WAY OUT!
We needn’t be forever cowed into accepting our inferior status as commodities in a “Labor Market.” We can, and should do something about it. How to begin? Talk it out with neighbors and friends…, and certainly with our working, on the job site, colleagues, and let’s get on with organizing to make things happen.
The writing of good stuff and exchanging of ideas on this site, and leaving it here without a pro active follow up, with a view to organizing to do something about it…, is, in the words of Confucius…, “Labor Lost.”
Let’s talk more about “organization.”