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"If" you are exploited? If? It's a given that employment IS exploitation these days, at least for most of us. Under the golden calf of "laissez faire" capitalism, we have a private sector that's pretty much free to keep wages as low as possible and prices artificially and unnecessarily high. We all just learned what a huge joke is "competition" and the so-called "free market" when the feds immediately jumped in to do "something" about the economy.

There's been lots of people suffering for the last, oh, couple of decades with all the now readily accepted downsizing and out-sourcing and moving overseas and everything else. But as soon as those with money invested in stocks, corporate shareholders, and all the rest...as soon as things started getting a little rough for them, you'd have thought it was the end of world: Something had to be done, and done now! And for the "working poor"? Oh, toss them a couple of hundred bucks and pray to the green dollar sign in the sky that they'll run right out and buy something to, of course, help that nebulous "the economy."

"If" you are exploited? My God, people, how much more "exploited" do you want to get than being called a "human resource"? An ink pen is a resource. But you, me, people? Well, give your employer credit since at least he's telling you to your face what he thinks of you and how you can expect to be treated. You're a "resource" and if he could, your employer would replace you with furry barnyard animals. But in return for this blatant dehumanization, you're still expected to drag your "humanity" to your employment, to play at being part of their "family," to give a two-weeks notice when they'll let you go without any warning whatsoever.

"If" you are exploited? Folks, the days of thirty-years and a pension are history, gone, dead and buried. And if you want to keep discussing the "American dream" as if it's still alive and kicking, by all means, have at it. I, for one, will have no part in pretending that echoes of things we've been told are still true and applicable.

Henry Ford was perhaps the last true American businessman this country ever had. Here was a man who was able to produce a line of cars at a price that was affordable to damned near everyone. He was able to pay his employees-yes, employees, not "human resources"-a higher wage than most others were earning. And when he wanted to expand in 1919, what happened? Two shareholders took him to court and complained that if he expanded, it would mean less money, less profit, for them. And you know what? The Supreme Court of Michigan agreed and made it perfectly clear that profits for the shareholders and stockholders comes before any other considerations in owning and operating a business. It's a quick on-line search: Ford v the Dodge Brothers.

"If" you are exploited? What the hell do you call when you and I have to pee in a bottle, agree to background checks, maybe even investigations into our credit history as part of the hiring process? Does any company to which you've applied ever open their books to you, to prove to you that they really are financially stable, that they are not simply a front for some drug-smuggling operation or some such? Right, that falls under the category of "that's different," doesn't it? No, it's not, but you keep right on playing the game, agreeing to be treated like a medieval serf who'll endure anything to please his Lord.

"If" you are exploited? The real question should be "What are you going to do about the tragic fact that we are exploited for nothing more noble than corporate profit and greed?"

Learn more about this author, Randy Vaughan.
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