"Rush," says the boss
"Work like as hoss
I'll take the profit
and you take the loss
I've got the brains
I've got the dough
The Lord himself
Decreed it so."
Mammy's little baby loves union union
Mammy's little baby loves union shop,
etc.
Someday, we will look back on employment in the same way we now look back on slavery. In fact, the term "wage slavery" is not a metaphor. It is a form of slavery that should be abolished. It is not usually as cruel as slavery slavery, but it can be.
This is simple statement of the premise: Everyone should get the full value of his labor. To get any less is theft. To get anymore is theft.
Capital is withheld wages. If a company accumulates capital it means wages have been withheld from those who earned them. Unless these wages go to benefit the labor that produced them, then they have been stolen from the rightful owners.
I know this all sounds dry, and preachy and Marxist.
(May I first say, I am not a Marxist. First, I cannot be an "-ist" for anyone I cannot read and rarely have I found a German author whose work I am able to read. I cannot be a Hegelian either. Or a Kantian or a Heideggerian. All these books sit on my shelf and my son has read them and he recommends them, but it is not likely to happen.
Next, to the extent I can understand the issues, in the great battle between Karl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, I stand with Proudhon. (Maybe this is just because the French write better.) Proudhon rejected collective ownership in favor of a plan in which the individual worker had ownership and he believed that social revolution could be achieved peacefully.
Also, I have never been the member of any organization that saw the teaching of Marx as an organizing force. I did try to get into the Navy Judge Advocates General Corps once which is publicly owned and operated, but I don't know if they talk about Marx or not, because I didn't get in.
So, unless you are just feeling grumpy, there is no need to call me a Marxist. Also, there is some risk I might begin to imagine that I have read Marx.
Also, it is not really accurate to call me a socialist, either. I am not a fan of collective ownership in most cases, although I would like to see a socialized bank, hospital and insurance company competing with privately owned ones. If we had these things, I would probably use them. However, I think we need privately owned houses to live in. I think everyone should have one. (This is an evolving opinion. I tried going without any property for a while during my Tolstoy period, but it was very inconvenient).
Don't under-estimate the quality of government work. Government prisons are far better than private prisons. The U.S. Army is first rate, I hear, and far better than the private mercenary corporations, at least as far as I can tell from news reports. The best criminal defense law firm in town are the Federal Public Defenders. If I ever get in trouble, I'll admit how broke I am (Kathy wants me to keep this secret), so they will represent me.
I am pretty socialistic in the sense that I would like to see a Year of Jubilee (hit the link in the title)and international equalization of all wealth, but this is more religious than economic. I have read biographies of Eugene V. Debs and if I had been around in 1912 or 1916 or 1920, I would have voted for him. Debs was a socialist, but I don't think I really am. We named our spare bedroom after Debs.
Fighting Bob La Follette was both a Republican and a Progressive and looks to me a lot like a socialist. If he were running this time around, I would vote for him and cast my first Republican vote. This is regardless of the office. Also, I would vote for the Vermont Independent Socialist, Bernie Sanders.
My friend, Dan Boyd, suggests I am an anarcho-syndicalist. I like the title. From the web, it appears anarcho-syndicalists also call themselves libertarian socialists, I guess as opposed to authoritarian socialists or libertarian economic oppressors. Brownsville, though, appears to have not anarcho-syndicalist clubs or political parties. I don't know much about the Rotarians or the Kiwanians or the Knights of Columbus. These may all be anarcho-syndicalists, but I am deterred by the funny hats. I read the Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood one of the founders of the Wobblies. I am a fan. We named our kitchen after Haywood.
I am still a Democrat. You can be these other things and still be a Democrat. In fact as Bill Clinton is now trying to prove again, as George Wallace showed before, you can be a racist and be a Democrat. You can also be these things and be a Republican, or at least once upon a time you could. The racism is easy for a Republican, as David Duke recently demonstrated and Woodrow Wilson earlier established. Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican and by his last race he was at least a progressive. Fighting Bob La Follette was both a Republican and a Progressive and looks to me a lot like a socialist.
My friend and tax man, Bill Fulcher, is both a Democrat and statewide treasure of the socialists. Where but Brownsville can you find a socialist tax man? I also have a socialist barber. God, I love this town.
The problem with me being a Democrat, though, is I am usually angry with most Democrats who grab office and, also, given a chance, I sue them a lot.
Another problem: I have strong doubts that voting matters at all. As my son Austin argues, "If voting made a difference, it would be illegal." That is probably right. I quit voting for a while because I worried about Matthew vii, 1 and thought maybe Jesus was instructing us not to vote in the Sermon on the Mount. It makes sense and that is how the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mennonites interpret it. Fan, again. I have never met a Witness or a Mennonite I did not like, but no rooms have been named after them.
My greatest concern is that voting in a non-democratic format such as plebiscites for Napoleon or Hitler or in the Electoral College or in the Democratic Super-delegate system uses up energy that could be more effectively directed to something important. Like writing in a blog, for instance.
My two favorite magazines are the Economist and the Socialist Worker. The Economist is an English, capitalist magazine and the Socialist Worker is an American (and obviously socialist) magazine. Both promote a economic interpretation of history and the world. In fact, they are very similar, except for the last paragraphs of the articles. The Economist describes a world in which money governs everything and that's OK. The Socialist Workers describe a world in which money governs everything and that's not OK. Anyway, I think both are more trustworthy for predictions of political races and economic trends than those confused magazines such as Nation, Texas Observer and National Review (yes, I read that one on-line) that think ideas are more important than money in predicting social behavior. (OK, OK, I may also occasionally read People, but it doesn't count here).
Treat all of this as a long digression, Uncle Toby. People often ask me why I don't run for office. The tirade above should put that to rest. I don't expect anyone to care what my politics are. I just throw it in to anticipate questions about where this labor opinion comes from and because I very much enjoy talking about myself.
Now, where does this opinion come from?
1. I have been an employer, and not a very good one.
2. I have been an employee and it was a bad fit.
3. I tried to start a coop and we never got off the ground, because it lost more money than it made--tens of thousands of dollars more.
I have tested the limits of the employer-employee relationships off and on since I got fired from my job as a paperboy for trying to organize a union.
These issues also include some skeletons that I must toss out of the closet. Bear with me, readers true. Sorting all of this out may be as hard as all of that time I have done in therapy.
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14 comments:
I can only say wow and how true to the following
"Another problem: I have strong doubts that voting matters at all. As my son Austin argues, "If voting made a difference, it would be illegal."
Years ago people use to ask me why it was so hard for me to come out of the closet as a socialist - I would say "people hate gays, but really hate socialists."
When I use to teach at Houston COmmunity College I use to write on the board the following and ask which is the method which should be used in a Democracy?
"From each according to his ability to each according to his worth."
"From each according to his ability to each according to his need."
The market place defines how much work you must do and how much you will earn
My 18 year students were always shocked to learn the first is the socialist model.
You raised another point - socialism is not some easily defined system. There is more than one model.
I do believe there are times when the workers in collective ownership can do a better job. I use to teach it is okay under some models for two different set of workers to own two different washing machine factories on opposite sides of town. Competition is not a bad thing.
On the otherside, I have been arguing that I will agree to open up the protected areas for oil if, [1] the US Government owns and operates them, [2] the US Government builds refineries for this oil and owns and operates the refineries, [3] the oil is first used to provide discount gas to schools, law enforcement - you get the idea, and [4] the government can only operate at a 10% profit. (I say 10% so that they have the money for further development and exploration without having to come back to the taxpayers)
As the demand for freemarket oil goes down because all of these entities are buying cheap gas you watch how fast the cost of oil on the freemarket goes down.
I used the above example because it shows how the government can own business while creating competition in the free market place.
I hit enter before I could proof and finish -
two side notes
27 years ago after a month of looking for Trotsky's home in Mexico City, I went to a tourist guide's final exam at Trotsky's home. (weird story) I sat in the chair he was sitting on when he was killed - b4 being thrown out I had an opportunity to read the papers which were on his desk (worth being thrown out)
Your son appears to being exposed to classical training. My dream has always been to open a highschool academy with str8 up and down classical training - 4 years of Latin - readings in the classics, you get the idea.
Of course being who I am, 1/2 of the seats would go to at risk poor kids, and the other half would go based on merit and ability to pay
Thank you for your reply.
As to the oil, I think that may be a good idea even without opening the protected areas. There is some historical basis for this because Spain took the position that all of the mineral rights remained with Crown.
Also, profit from oil has pushed the oil companies to push the government to push for war, and nationalization might break this cycle, though I am not sure it would.
On closet socialists, I know several. If I try to out them, they just deny it. That is the trouble with thought crimes, they are difficult to prove.
Austin graduated from St. John's College in Santa Fe. They had four years core curriculum in the Great Books with studies in Greek and French and scientific experiments from guys that did them first.
I would have loved to have had classics based High School with four years of Latin available when they were in school.
Ed, the only reason I never secured my PhD in Political Science is because I have never found a program in classical training - I have no interest in taking 3-4 courses in computer science - I long for the day you needed 4 years in Latin or Greek and another reseach language
On the oil issue, the government can just stop giving leases and produce the oil as a government owned oil company. I believe in competition - the government competing with Exxon/Mobil is a good thing
Can you say "PEMEX", and all the coruption associated with it.
Can you say Enron and all of the corruption associated with it -
Simple minds never arrive at complex solutions.
For the record Texas can do the same thing as the feds. The State of Texas can start its own oil company and instead of leasing state lands to Exxon/Mobil it can develop the oil, refine it, and then use it for public entities like school districts, law enforcement - etc - what is left over can be marketed. You watch how fast the price of oil comes down. Competition is a good thing.
I love capitalists who claim they love competition, until that competition is the government - if they cannot operate at a 10% profit while providing discount gas to public entities, which save tax dollars, then like any other company they go out of business.
Hooray for the freethinkers! Thank goodness we have a place that doesn't force-feed traditional demo-republican propaganda. Ask anyone in town why they are a democrat(or republican)and why.
You'll be amazed, argumentum ad nauseam indeed.
"From each according to his ability to each according to his need."
Translation:
"We take the tax money from the people who have the ability to pay, and who are the least likely to vote for us, and give it to the people who aren't bright enough to earn that kind of money on their own, and who are the most likely to vote for us."
"He who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul."
Atheist Anon,
You should start a blog and maybe you'll find like-minded individuals. It would be a great add to the diversity of thought in this city. It would probably pain me to read it because doubt is never comfortable, but is good to be out of the comfort zone every once in a while.
Patricia A.
Dear Anonymous Atheist,
Some of the most Christian people I have known have been atheists.
And even Mother Theresa described her doubts.
My old Grandma who was a serious Irish Catholic (loved the Irish priests and hated the Pope because he was Italian) used to quote a character from H.G. Wells:
Why! if I thought there was an omnipotent God who looked down on battles and deaths and all the waste and horror of this war--able to prevent these things--doing them to amuse Himself--I would spit in his empty face...."
Oh my! I think I'm in love. Great writing, and great comments. Finally a post where no one mentions the knuckleheads on our commission. Please say more!
100 words or less
Patricia,
Thank you for the support. I wish I could blog. Unfortunately, I am much too introverted to do that. I am also paranoid of being outed.
Ed,
Also see George Carlin (paraphrased):
"If this is the work of a supreme being, I am not impressed. This looks more like the work of an office temp with a bad attitude."
George Carlin is the man.
The first and second estates are alive and well in our community. The third, is likened to our present day third world countries.
It is now politically incorrect to address it as such. Developing nations,is a much more pleasing and less offensive phrase. Demographers place us right across the creek from the third world.
We all know the integrity of our fourth estate. Some say the bloggers are the fifth.
ML
There's a biographical folk song, based on The Autobiography of Bill Haywood book you mention, posted on the Bob Feldman 68 blog and the "Columbia Songs for a Democratic Society" music site, that might interest your readers.
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