On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 2:50 PM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote:
> I'm not opposing the concept Marx had but I am claiming that 'mere > existence' is > not a demonstable condition for a large number of people. > > Raw capitalism -- capitalism in its pure amoral state -- will drive a huge > segment of the population into abject poverty and degradation. > > We stopped to eat on the interstate last week The only place was a > Denny's (I'd > never been to one). It was very crowded. We chose to sit at the counter > directly in front of the kitchen serving area. It was mayhem. The > waitresses, > all plenty tough looking country girls (who I imagined had three kids at > mom's > trailer and an absent husband, either run-off or in jail), were running > and > bumping into each other, slopping the food, dropping utensils, and rinsing > containers for quick reuse. The cooks, all scraggy looking, skinny boys, > literally threw the food onto the frying surfaces, scooped the butter or > lard, > and slammed it all onto big plates. The floors were littered, the counter > stools were wobbly. When we had finished our leathery lukewarm grilled > cheese > sandwiches and received the check (rather steep I thought). I cautiously > asked > our waitress how she was paid. She said $4.90 an hour plus tips. I > guessed > that she probably averaged $400 a week take home, if that. Her face was > covered > with sweat. Now that, to me, is exploitation. The girl is working like a > beast, the restaurant is like a farm where animals are fed by the scoop, > and the > prices are actually high for that type of place. Something is very > wrong.The > dignity of hard working underclass people is being abused. They will not > easily > escape their hard-times poverty. And this waitress is probably among the > lucky > few in her societal group. She's likely in deep debt as well. I gave her > five > bucks on a twelve dollar bill. I should've given every girl there $100 and > put > it on my credit card just because I don't like what chain restaurants and > stores > do to (mostly small town) workers. They need unions. > wc > - The mind resorts to reason for want of training. (Henry Adams) More and more places of employment are run like Denny's where the people at the top are not about to spend even half-a-penny to properly train their employees. So they leave the employees to "figure things out" (reason?) for themselves. And that precipitates a slow downward spiral. And then as the business goes into steeper decline, the people at the top just can't understand why (it's only the mystery of mysteries to them) and sometimes even blame their employees for the decline. And then the people at the top begin laying off employees to make their business "more competitive." And that increases the workload for the remaining employees.
