Weiner’s weiner is gone! Can we now return to the act of running a country into the ground?
Do you remember your history lessons? Remember the term serf? Let me help your memory a bit…..a serf is the lowest individual of society that is required to perform labor in return for certain legal or customary rights or a person in bondage or servitude. I bring all this up….why?
The way the economy is going with all the greed and deceit that corporations are using on the average person…we could be looking at an updated form of serfdom. In short, we are once again becoming peasants. And now I bet that you are asking just what am I going on about, right?
How about a simple definition of indentured servitude…….servants could not marry without the permission of their owner, were subject to physical punishment, and saw their obligation to labor enforced by the courts. To ensure uninterrupted work by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture if they became pregnant. But unlike slaves, servants could look forward to a release from bondage. If they survived their period of labor, servants would receive a payment known as “freedom dues” and become free members of society. One could buy and sell indentured servants’ contracts, and the right to their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of property. (Does that silly to you as it does to me?)
Basically, it is more acceptable form of slavery!
Think not? Today we have massive debates about marriage, who can and cannot do the deed…..we have legislation that is making it difficult for workers to get a fair shake from corporations and governments…..courts are siding with the special interests over the needs and desires of the people, especially the working majority…..we see women looked upon as the lower end of the worker population…..and finally we have the takeovers of one company over another and the workers used as a bargaining chip….workers at the mercy of capital and greed…..
There is even a push to repeal child labor laws……
business trade associations, employer groups, reactionary
Republican politicians and Tea Party activists to urge severe weakening of
the state laws, and, ultimately, of the federal law. They agree with Supreme
Court Justice Clarence Thomas that the child labor laws are unconstitutional
for a variety of obscure legal reasons. They’ve begun their legal attacks on
state laws with the laws in Maine and Missouri.
Basically, we have a growing updated form of serfdom and indentured servitude….and thanx to the Congress and the politicians it will continue to get worse for the worker……and eventually…our children. I realize that it is a bit of a stretch but look at the economy and the jobs picture in the US or the GOP and its attacks on the working class or the Middle class, if you prefer……the worker is becoming a tool of diminishing value or a serf……
I know that there will be people who think is fantasy and just a shot at capitalism……Well, I guess it is…in a way…..But just in case you do not see the working class disappearing….take a look at this Business Insider website…..
Without an abundance of good jobs, the middle class in the United States is going to shrivel up and die. Right now, rampant unemployment is absolutely killing communities all over America.
Click here to see the signs >
I agree 100% with the Business Insider website statement, I even agree with your serfdom statements to a point – and in my view that will destroy the US economy, if it runs that way unchecked.
However, being a “worker” and (ABOVE ALL) being also in serious debt (as most ordinary people are in one way or another) IS serfdom – even slavery – and it always HAS been! Thus the people’s OWN greed is what has brought them to where they are. They’ve bought into all the patently bullshit lies of the advertisers and have failed to see that the “buy now, pay later” culture they have accepted is no more than a tactic to trap them into servitude – whether those doing it realise it or not.
Please don’t take this personally, but I’m also afraid that, in my opinion, the belief in unions (from an admittedly very worthy and valid beginning) has only fueled that since it has exacerbated the “them and us” society and often created a belief that the unions can, or even WANT to protect their members – they simply mostly cannot and do NOT care to do so anyway. All most of them seek is power for themselves and that was always doomed to ultimate failure – as was seen in the USSR, capital will always win that battle in the end. The stated ethos behind almost all the more rabid, more left wing unions (just like that of the powerful rich, but for opposite reasons) is utterly anti “the American Dream” (though they probably wouldn’t admit it) and that dream is actually what made America into a huge and powerful economy – even if it was often a myth.
The extreme right is shooting itself in the head (though it can’t see it) just as the more extreme left has been doing for at least six decades. You are probably right in all your predictions (sadly), but no one will gain in the longer term and ordinary people are the cannon fodder of this conflict (as usual).
As to the child labour laws, I think that’s a complete red herring – I don’t know exactly what is proposed, but I suspect I would for once applaud the people who are attempting this. Life is NOT good; life is NOT easy; life is NOT about childhood; life is about conflict, striving to compete, making your way in the world and (coming back to my earlier statement) PAYING YOUR OWN WAY, whatever that takes. Send the little f*ckers out to work as soon as they’re strong and old enough to cope (it never did my generation any harm!). THAT way they’ll have neither the time nor the energy to stab each other on street corners, mug old ladies of a few dollars, do/sell drugs, or generally be a total pain in the arse to society at large – plus they might learn a little about what life is REALLY like! What’s so special about kids? People say they are the future – well, F*CK the future, there may not BE one! What about NOW?
Agreed to a point? I will take it! LOL
You know that I do not support what unions have become, just as you….the child labor laws is to get a new batch of willing slaves…the income will be substantial lower than for an adult and they will be worked horrendous hours, something that is making a come back…..we would NOT need kids toiling as hard as their parents if there were a jobs market with descent pay……this is what it is all about…….creating more wage slaves………
I know that all those graphs will be a buzz kill for most people but it shows a declining middle class…..and declining rapidly……
Yeah, I know – you SOUND like you’re right, but think on, work never did US any harm, just a smacked ass never did either. There are SOME things we SHOULD go back to – and one of those is kids that do as they’re told, work bloody hard and learn to live in the REAL world!
Other than that we agree – a healthy jobs market and a healthy economy are EVERYTHING!
I have NO problem with children working….the problem here is that it will interfer with education and if that is the future….then we are f*cked!
You make some good points Dr. Chuq but the big difference is how corporations today make everyone believe that we still have the liberty of personal choices; choices pretty much dictated and guided by corporate interests. In the old days, serfs knew that their fate was tied to the landowners and men of wealth and power and until mercantilism started to take hold they saw no way out.
Good points Larry…….and just as the serfs of old knew that landowners had them by the ‘nads, so the American people are finding that the corporations are doing the same thing……I use to talk back in the day about wage slaves….the difference is today workers are starting to comprehend the concept more easily…..
I don’t think they’re getting it at all – that’s a fantasy – and, with respect, if they don’t get it, then the American people are pretty gullible, bordering on just plain stupid… I figured that out fifty years ago and I’ve never let it happen to me, because I knew what they were about…
I never joined a union and I never let an employer run my life either. I ALWAYS gave very good value for the money they paid me and I always got well paid. Heck! what else WOULD employers be about? I’d do the same in their position, wouldn’t you?
LOL! American people are definitely gullible! Just look at the people we elect. Working for a small business works best….at a large corporation the employee is nothing more than inventory…..today it is more about politics than work ethic….at least from what I have seen.
I agree entirely, which is why I ALWAYS worked for small companies – they couldn’t afford the biggest money or the most wonderful conditions, but I (as I said) gave good value and got well rewarded for what I did – give and take.
The minute anything gets big – big company, big union, or big workforce, life ends up in the crapper along with common sense and common decency.
Cool! Another agreement….this is becoming a common thing…..great, huh?
I see the middle class disappearing. Soon will just be the Haves and the Have-nots.
Hansi…we already have the haves and the have nots just they are not as easily seen….but that is changing and changing quickly…..
Repealing child labor laws? Really? Typical right wing get a fresh batch of workers with no voice in government. Despicable!
I smell a new campaign slogan: Serfs Up Dude!…. I know, cliche, but I had to say it. Great discussion gentlemen and lass.
Serfs up! Damn I like it! Thanx Phillip……
…………….The angry working class the good folks between the two coasts who live in what elitist pundits dub as Fly-Over Land are certainly getting a lot of TV face time dead tree ink and blogosphere attention..Most of the conventional wisdom paints them as part of a populist uprising angry at the economy distrustful of the government and if not members of the Tea Party firmly planted on the right side of the political spectrum..But lets face it Who wouldnt be angry with an economy thats lost 11 million jobs largely due to Wall Streets reckless actions? What sane Americans wouldnt be upset after working hard and playing by the rules for years only to see incomes fall and dreams of retirement security fade?.But does that mean this populist wave embraces the kind of corporate free-for-all youre-on-your-own economic philosophy of the Republican right or the even-further-right fringe groups?..