A FAIR WAGE HELPS EVERYBODY As technology advances, fewer and fewer workers will be necessary to create the goods we, for the most part the workers, consume. It is necessary then for those who invariably, in a capitalist system, end up owning most of the technology, to make sure that the workers make a living wage so they can purchase the goods their technology makes, thus maximizing sales and profit. Otherwise everyone loses. This is no different than what Henry Ford realized 100 years ago when he applied the technology of that day, mass production, to the automobile: "Henry Ford had reasoned that since it was now possible to build inexpensive cars in volume, more of them could be sold if employees could afford to buy them. The $5 day helped better the lot of all American workers and contributed to the emergence of the American middle class. In the process, Henry Ford had changed manufacturing forever." corporate.ford/news-center/press-releases-detail/677-5-dollar-a-day Now the fact is that higher wages and a shorter day also addressed the huge cost of worker turnover that had plagued his business to that point. Regardless of these additional benefits to the business, it was truly a huge win/win. The problem today is that the owners of the technology are trying to own it all and cut out the workers. And, because of the willing apologists they employ or encourage with trinkets in droves, they are succeeding. However it is a short term strategy. They need to be reminded of the old adage: "Pigs get fat; Hogs get slaughtered." Or as a former president of the UAW once said, "If you do not take care of the workers, you had better build those walls around your private residence a lot higher."
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 01:06:33 +0000
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