So many modern workplace environments are so unpleasant, often even dangerous or deadly, that even the most casual observer may agree that we seem to take two steps backwards for each step forward. Obviously, too many employers have adopted the bad philosophy that says "People exist for the benefit of business. Business does not exist for the benefit of people." Of course, we all recognize that the business owners are benefiting more and more: since 1990, the press and media have been regularly reporting the fact that the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class has been increasingly down-sized into the ranks of poverty. While this downward-spiral is effected more by economic policy than employer behavior, many businesses recognize this as a feeding-frenzy, an opportunity to abuse their natural rights in the employee-employer relationship.

Common sense tells us that business cannot exist without customers, and therefore business does, indeed, exist for the benefit of people. Greed and arrogance among business owners conspire against this straightforward fact of life, and many have found that they can enjoy tremendous success while abusing the very people who make that success happen. These maladapted actors in the human equation are empowered by a lack of meaningful enforcement with regard to high standards in their treatment of employees.

What are the ways that higher standards could be empowered?

The best employers recognize that they are competing with other businesses for the best employees. In job markets like Silicon Valley, Seattle, and New York, attracting new talent from out of state can often mean including housing in the sign-up package. At the other end of the spectrum, some business owners seem to be competing not for employees, but to see who can sink the lowest when it comes to abusing the people they hire. These bottom-feeders can get away with their cut-throat strategies due to the simple reality that there are more workers than living-wage jobs. The job market can be an effective enforcement mechanism for higher employee treatment standards, but only in a select few fields, like engineering, that don't attract enough local talent. Most of us can easily be replaced by someone who is more desperate for work.

Governments, whether local, state, or federal, have laws and enforcement procedures in place, but in recent decades they have become increasingly toothless. Especially at the federal level,

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