Progressive Ponderings: Fruits of Labor

Joe Mayer

by Joe Mayer

I begin today with two sentences from the last Ponderings: “Our economic life depends on the toil of each other.” And, “Who will control our livelihood?”

Our early ancestors, individually and in small communities, dealt directly with nature to satisfy the need for food, clothing and shelter. Gradually we realized that more could be produced if we each perfected certain skills and traded and shared with others. Later, some of us determined that we could reap more wealth from many individuals if we made them dependent on us. Feudalism, slavery, the industrial revolution were all steps in the process where a powerful few siphoned more out of the labor of dependent workers. Capitalism, the latest in this progression, perfects the separation of human toil from the needs of laborers.

The owners of capital now decide what human toil is needed, its worth determined by supply and demand. Our livelihood is being controlled by the corporate world in which our needs are not part of the equation. Instead of satisfying our necessities through interdependence and sharing, most of us are becoming completely dependent on the corporate world. Our labor is treated as a commodity. Its economic value to capital is its only worth.

Capital is organized into power centers – trade associations, the Chamber of Commerce, for example. One of the objectives of these organizations is to keep labor from organizing to achieve some semblance of power. “Communist” is the name branded on labor leaders, applied to civil rights and human rights workers, and to the minister who dares to preach the Gospels.

Now, the Corporate Political Party that for the past two years has killed or tried to kill every job-producing bill in Congress is campaigning on “jobs, jobs, jobs.” It’s fascinating that they are publicly pro-jobs and privately anti-labor at the same time and get by with it. Depending on the audience, they periodically give lip service to workers.

I’m also fascinated and perplexed that corporate CEOs and boards frequently state in their annual reports: “Our employees are our greatest assets.” This even occurs in years when ten thousand or more workers are laid off or fired and the CEO is given a $10 million bonus for cutting costs. “Cost” is what workers are labeled on the Profit and Loss Statement. And “cost” accurately describes the value of labor to the “profit only” mentality. (An idea: buy one share of the new General Motors stock when it goes public and you’ll immediately have a whole management team working to increase your profit if they can just find a way to eliminate the machinist who has worked there for thirty years.)

Our suffering, jobless brothers and sisters are currently being held captive more by politics than by economics. Using human misery to regain power, our corporate-sponsored politicians and a few of their campaigners are even advocating for out-sourcing jobs to decrease corporate costs.

The well-being of each individual and the common good are inseparable. The only return to economic recovery is through widely shared prosperity.