Modern Day Slave - An Essay

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not only that, but college is no guarantee of employment. My one friend's husband lost his 6-figure a year job, and then she got laid off shortly after that. She went to college and ran them another $15 in the hole to get a nursing degree, only to find out like I did roughly 22 years ago that people don't want to hire you if you don't have experience. And you can't get experience without a job, which you can't get without experience, which you can't get without a job, and so on.

I went to college, got a shitload of qualifications and eventually came to the conclusion that qualifications = shit in today's world. I've met people who are surprised that I'm working in a petrol station when I've got A-Levels and an NVQ. I just reply that I know people doing my job and similar who've got fucking DEGREES. The simple fact is now, it doesn't matter two shits whether you went to college or university or whatever you want to call it; it's no longer an automatic window of opportunity.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Everything counts towards the bottom line. Trust me, when the financial pendulum swings back the other way, there's going to be some pretty significant shifts in the offers they have to make to attract and retain the best staff from a diminished pool of applicants. Until then, they're up against shareholders who are looking at diminishing return on their investments.

Rapscallion

While I do agree with your statement there are two problems I see with it:

1. Many major U.S. companies posted good profits this past year and are STILL not planning to hire anytime soon.

2. It's looking like it's going to be a long long time before the pendulum shifts back the other way.

Now I understand you're British so it might be different for you, but in the U.S. not only do we need to create jobs for folks who lost theirs and haven't found new ones yet, we also have to consider the fact that thousands more 15 and 16 year olds are entering the workforce monthly (due to population growth). Every month employment growth is stagnant we're falling further behind the 8 ball.

Also there's no reason the corporations would want things to turn around. They have their profits and they still have their employees by the balls, why change anything?

[blas87]

I really don't want to come across as Susie Team Player or the spoil sport here, but a bad job, a retarded boss or higher up managers, stupid policies and all other forms of being screwed over =/= slavery.

[Rapscallion]

While I do agree with your statement there are two problems I see with it:

1. Many major U.S. companies posted good profits this past year and are STILL not planning to hire anytime soon.

2. It's looking like it's going to be a long long time before the pendulum shifts back the other way.

Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. Pendulum swings like that are long-term at best. The boom-bust cycle is usually best measured in terms of a decade or two. Not fun when it's down.

As for the companies not hiring, that's a hard one to tackle. It will improve over time, as managers decide to palm off more of their responsibilities and increase their personal power bases, but it will take time. Governments cannot force companies to hire. Shareholders are going to be more interested in boards of directors who keep costs down. The issue there is that the economy as we know it is driven mostly by confidence. Sod the gold standard, sod the oil standard - if people don't feel confident in the prospects then the share price goes down.

It doesn't help the companies in the long term, though. Fewer people employed is going to result in fewer customers able to afford their services. That's even longer term. The usual recovery plan is to make it more attractive for people to start up their own businesses to take up some of the slack in the unemployment pool, thus providing some extra competition for the outfits who are making profit. Hey, if there's profit for them then there must be profit for others, right? That's how the economy works - red in tooth and claw.

Now I understand you're British so it might be different for you, but in the U.S. not only do we need to create jobs for folks who lost theirs and haven't found new ones yet, we also have to consider the fact that thousands more 15 and 16 year olds are entering the workforce monthly (due to population growth). Every month employment growth is stagnant we're falling further behind the 8 ball.

I don't know the exact situation over here, but I think it's similar. Generally speaking, the economy's fucked and will take some time to recover.

Also there's no reason the corporations would want things to turn around. They have their profits and they still have their employees by the balls, why change anything?

Inertia and human nature. Humans love their little power empires. As long as the shareholders (for larger companies) are still getting increasing profits, they don't have the time to keep looking at the fine detail. They'll recruit one or two here or there to make life easier and to increase their power base. That's why companies can suddenly shed loads of people beyond what seems reasonable and still function - inefficiency creeps in over time.

Rapscallion

[Racket_Man]

from my point of view it is not fully blown slavery but more of a throwback to the situation that exsisted beginning 100 years ago and continuing back into human history including the various forms of feudalism and serfdom. and this includes indentured servants type of thing also

it all began when some person (usually male) declared themselves or were delcared or granted the title "ruler"/"master"/king/etc. they had total mastery over the land, its people, and the various resources the land held.

SSDD. a few hold the "power" and "have a right" to wield that power because of a title or money, or just plain apathy.

[Dasota]

As to slavery, there are pretty huge differences between slavery and employment. You can leave employment. You can't be traded and sold. You have to do what you're told, but that's pretty central to every paid position I've worked in.
Rapscallion

I have to disagree with this just a little. You can infact be traded and sold.

Case in point is that there are a number of coffee donut shops in the area, and if one is short people, they tend to call up my location and ask for people to be sent off. Quite a few have been permanently sent off because they had no choice. It's go and get the hours, thus get money that you can't afford to say no to, or get your hours cut back for not bending to management's whims.

This happened to me not too long ago, where I was being sent off to quite a few different stores, and it wasn't until I landed in the hospital from exhaustion that i put a stop to it because I needed the money. Now that I'm not willing to go to other stores, I get my hours cut at my location.


Same with the fact that I have a VERY open availability, but I cannot/will not work 2 shifts out of 21 shifts in a week (1st shift, 2nd shift, 3rd shift) and because of this, I get punished when they put me on those days that go against my availability which has been the same since I've been hired, and I call out because of it.

It may not be the strictest sense of the definition, but you can be traded/sold to other locations (Especially in a hourly job in a chain) and if you do know bend to their will, you will get "punished" for it.

[Boozy]

That really sucks, Dasota, but it's not slavery.

You can quit without your employers coming to your house and leading you back to the donut shop in chains.

[Dasota]

While they are not forcing me to work there, the fact that I can't just up and leave because I don't like my job is what makes it seem like slavery.

They have me by the balls, and since I live in the college neighborhood, it's really hard to get a job where they don't treat you like crap, because what do they care? The majority of their staff are kids who are just going to leave at the end of the school year/ end of college.

Hopefully with starting college myself next Tuesday, I can hope that it will open new doors for me so I can get out of such craptastic jobs. Doesn't make me feel any less like a slave currently though.

[draco664]

While they are not forcing me to work there, the fact that I can't just up and leave because I don't like my job is what makes it seem like slavery.

You certainly can "just up and leave". You have a choice. Slaves do not have a choice.

Just because the perceived alternative is unattractive does not mean that you do not *have* an alternative. People leave dead-end jobs all the time to try to make a go of it themselves. Some succeed, some dont.

That's the idea of freedom. You are free to try and succeed. And that goes hand in hand with the freedom to fail.

The vast majority of employers in the US are small businesses. So the whole anger at big corporations seems a bit misdirected to me. It is the small business owners who employ most of the people, and they don't have multi-billion dollar bailouts available if they fail.

That encourages a certain amount of caution.

Twelve years ago I was a salaried employee stuck in a dead end job after dropping out of university. I left to start my own company. It was the most terrifying decision I've ever made. I wasn't sure if I would be able to feed myself, and the prospect of living off my then-gf's meagre income didn't do my pride any good. It worked and I was able to support my wife as she stayed home to raise our two daughters.

A few years ago we sold our house to chase what promised to be a fantastic opportunity in the UK. Due to a little thing now known as the GFC, it didn't eventuate and we ended up back in Australia with no house, and no savings and 28K of debt after a year of living in London with poorly paid work (that was going to take off real soon now, just wait and see...) and moving my entire family around the world twice. But I still have my company and I'm now earning triple the average Victorian wage.

Shit happens. The world doesn't owe you a living. If you want to keep working for a wage, you will have to put up with how employers can get away with treating you.

[Rapscallion]

I think that while right now you have a choice, the reality is that there are few options to go to instead. However, that's with the economy in the shitter (a technical term I like to use occasionally). When the economy's doing far better, and it's cyclical, workers are far better treated because they have more choice and move elsewhere easier. It does cost to train new workers, so companies try to avoid having to do that in such a situation.

I still think it sucks - it's not slavery, but it's the economic situation.

Rapscallion

[Mikkel]

The economic situation and the availability of workers will change how oppressive the system feels, but it won't change the system.
I suppose most of you know these words, more than 150 years old. You may disagree with the politics of the author, but I think they apply very well.

It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

[Lace Neil Singer]

from my point of view it is not fully blown slavery but more of a throwback to the situation that exsisted beginning 100 years ago and continuing back into human history including the various forms of feudalism and serfdom. and this includes indentured servants type of thing also

it all began when some person (usually male) declared themselves or were delcared or granted the title "ruler"/"master"/king/etc. they had total mastery over the land, its people, and the various resources the land held.

SSDD. a few hold the "power" and "have a right" to wield that power because of a title or money, or just plain apathy.

This. It's not slavery; it's serfdom. And it's not good.

[Rageaholic]

Yeah, slavery is an extreme term, serfdom is more accurate. You have a few people (CEOS and shareholders) getting millions and billions off of the workers who get paid barely enough to get by. Sure, there are some variations, but it sounds like the middle class is getting smaller and smaller, while the lower class is getting higher and higher. That's the problem with working for a corporation, financially, you are at their mercy. No one can really own these products since it takes an entire factory to make them. And when corporations get more power, the more people have to flock to them for jobs, if they are even willing to hire.

[FArchivist]

I mean, they can fire you for just about anything, even things that happen off the clock! Just reading stories here and my own experience with job hunting, it's like you have to give up a part of yourself just to get the honor of working for a minimum wage. It's not just simply working for them, you have to jump through all these hoops and kiss ass, begging to work for them. Then when you do, you are treated as an expendable asset.

This, of course, makes perfect business sense. It increases profitability in the short-term, which pleases the stockholders, which makes it OK. Remember, profit needs to increase EVERY year. If it goes down, you're doing a bad job. If it holds steady, you're doing a bad job. Permanent increase is the only acceptable means and ANYTHING done to create that is acceptable.

What's even worse is that our public schools encourage this mentally so our kids are brainwashed into thinking this is how it is at a young age. Don't believe me, what's the common defense used for any authoritarian policy at school? It's to prepare them for the "real world" as if they don't have a choice. Strict and unreasonable attendance policy? Well bosses are not going to take too kindly to being late so you might as well get used to it now! Too much homework and not enough time for fun? Better get used to it!

Which is correct. I had it beat into me at home as a child: Do no question the parents. No, we don't care what your opinion is. No, we don't have to provide an explanation. Our House, Our Rules, and so long as you live here, You Will Obey.

Or to quote the Daleks: "OBEY WITHOUT QUESTION! OBEY WITHOUT HESITATION! OBEY! OBEY! OBEY!"

Since we want our corporate employees to think this way, it makes sense to teach them it at an early age. Teaching them late? Makes them useless. We do not want independent thought except in those we've groomed for the executive class.

That's the idea of freedom. You are free to try and succeed. And that goes hand in hand with the freedom to fail.

I think a lot of people have a problem with accepting the freedom of "Obey my managerial authority or starve on the streets at my whim." Blithely accepting the loss of your housing, transport, medical care, and larder because you didn't want to work that overtime is a bit much to expect, don't you think?

Freedom, after all, is a harsh and merciless thing that doesn't care if you die.

The vast majority of employers in the US are small businesses. So the whole anger at big corporations seems a bit misdirected to me. It is the small business owners who employ most of the people, and they didn't have multi-billion dollar bailouts available if they fail.

Sure, small businesses employ 52% of the American population...but the big corps bring 83% of the GDP. Therefore, who gives a crap about small business? Money talks, not employment base. Here in the USA, how important you are and how much we should cater to you depends entirely on the money you make. Small businesses are therefore given the shaft.

Then again, I'll never work for a small business ever again in my entire life. Small businesses in the USA are mini-fiefdoms, where the owners are kings unanswerable to anyone. Under right-to-work, you can be fired without cause for no penalty. So if the Big Boss wants to schtupp the office gal or she loses her job? Too fucking bad. The Big Boss wants to snort your paychecks up his nose? Too fucking bad. Sure, you can complain to the Dept of Labor, but good luck with that. At least in a big corp, I have an HR I can go to.

[Rantsylvania 6-5000]

Bumping this thread back up, with an article that explains many of the reasons behind the things being discussed here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-th...876148381.html