Comments on: Employers Snow Congress http://www.breakingranks.net/weblog/archives/130 This blog seeks to raise public awareness of rankism. Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:24:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: Elisa http://www.breakingranks.net/weblog/archives/130#comment-102 Tue, 28 Mar 2006 05:01:51 +0000 http://www.breakingranks.net/weblog/archives/130#comment-102 I think that's a good way to frame it: if a person refuses to take a job that pays too low, they are trying to resist slavery (a wage so low it renders you dependent on government handouts). Tapping illegal immigrants for a slave class is still slavery. One problem is that when you're unemployed the people around you push you to take any job because inadequate pay is better than no pay. What they miss is that this is passive support for an employer-demand-driven slave system. The only way to keep the minimum wage at a living level is if *nobody* takes that job. Illegal immigrants are like union-busting scabs in that way: when they take the job "nobody wants", they facilitate the building of a slave system. Sometimes small business owners complain about how they need to underpay people or they will go out of business. This is one of the arguments the plantation owners used to justify slavery. When it comes down to it, why should one person get to be the "owner" by leveraging the economic vulnerability of others? The business owner isn't usually intrinsically superior or imbued with some magic claim to privilege. All they have is the demand that others work cheaply for them so they can be the owners. I'm all for small business - it reduces dependence on the corporate milk cow. However, I don't think small businesses should be run on the hierarchy model. I think a lot of economic problems could be solved with small business partnerships, where everyone is a shareholder, the work is fairly divvied up, and no one is a subordinate. I think that’s a good way to frame it: if a person refuses to take a job that pays too low, they are trying to resist slavery (a wage so low it renders you dependent on government handouts). Tapping illegal immigrants for a slave class is still slavery.

One problem is that when you’re unemployed the people around you push you to take any job because inadequate pay is better than no pay. What they miss is that this is passive support for an employer-demand-driven slave system. The only way to keep the minimum wage at a living level is if *nobody* takes that job. Illegal immigrants are like union-busting scabs in that way: when they take the job “nobody wants”, they facilitate the building of a slave system.

Sometimes small business owners complain about how they need to underpay people or they will go out of business. This is one of the arguments the plantation owners used to justify slavery. When it comes down to it, why should one person get to be the “owner” by leveraging the economic vulnerability of others? The business owner isn’t usually intrinsically superior or imbued with some magic claim to privilege. All they have is the demand that others work cheaply for them so they can be the owners.

I’m all for small business - it reduces dependence on the corporate milk cow. However, I don’t think small businesses should be run on the hierarchy model. I think a lot of economic problems could be solved with small business partnerships, where everyone is a shareholder, the work is fairly divvied up, and no one is a subordinate.

]]> by: Intrepid Liberal Journal http://www.breakingranks.net/weblog/archives/130#comment-101 Tue, 28 Mar 2006 04:30:27 +0000 http://www.breakingranks.net/weblog/archives/130#comment-101 People will do almost anyting for the right compensation. But since the compensation for low status jobs is not possible to live in - most Americans are not as willing. Hence, the need and demand for migrant workers who in effect have become indentured servants at best and slaves at worst. But we have 11 million people in our country not currently accounted for. We can't simply deport them. To do so is immoral. We have to combine rationality with compassion. <a href="http://www.intrepidliberaljournal.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Intrepid Liberal Journal</a> People will do almost anyting for the right compensation. But since the compensation for low status jobs is not possible to live in - most Americans are not as willing. Hence, the need and demand for migrant workers who in effect have become indentured servants at best and slaves at worst. But we have 11 million people in our country not currently accounted for. We can’t simply deport them. To do so is immoral. We have to combine rationality with compassion.

Intrepid Liberal Journal

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