Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Some post Labor Day Socialism.

When visiting London in 1931, Mohandas Gandhi was asked by a British journalist what he thought of Western civilization. He made this famous remark: “I think it would be a good idea.”

That said, if you think about the history of civilization, most "great" empires have been built on slavery, or a nicer phrase for slavery--cheap labor. Very cheap labor.

Basically what's going on in the West is a war waged by the plutocrats against the middle class. There is a concerted effort to drive the cost of labor out of the system. We have off-shored jobs to places where 12-grains of rice constitutes a buffet, to lands where if you make $100/week you are doing well.

As the BBC recently noted: "never before in history has so many worked for free." Or nearly free.

I think of our industry (and I am one of the lucky ones) where no one is more than a hair's breadth getting canned. Complain about your working conditions? Your salary? Anything?

Doing so makes as much sense as an astronaut complaining about weightlessness. Shit man, being treated like shit comes with the territory.

We are all Willy Lomans roaming around with no place to go, no sales to make and no hope for a better tomorrow

A man is not a piece of fruit. You can't just eat the orange and throw away the peel.

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