DEVALUING AN HOUR'S WORTH OF WORK

Newsweek magazine just released the results of a very interesting experiment it conducted to determine how low of a wage workers in various countries would take in order to secure employment. The prospective free-lancers were not told who they'd be working for, so the results were not heavily skewed by individuals who would accept low wages in hopes of getting higher wages later at a prominent magazine.

Reportedly, no prospective workers in Egypt, the Netherlands or Italy were willing to take employment for less than five dollars per hour. German workers wouldn't accept less than three dollars per hour and British laborers wouldn't go lower than two dollars. In the United States, however, free-lancers were willing to accept as low as twenty-five (25¢) cents per hour for labor.

One can say that it's a sign of the bad economic times that some Americans are willing to work for a quarter an hour, and there's no doubt in my mind that millions of Americans have reached that stage where they're desperate for anything, but desperation is not the only conclusion one can take from the Newsweek experiment. An equally valid conclusion is that Americans have devalued the worth of their own labor.

I find it ironic that American laborers are the most productive laborers in the entire world, and have increased productivity levels year after year without fail, and yet, over the past ten years, have placed less and less value on the worth of a job. I can only surmise that labor and the value of labor have been undermined by forces many workers do not understand, and unless steps are taken to oppose those forces, the value of American labor will continue to erode.

The military tactic called "divide and conquer" has many applications beyond the battlefield, and for years, American workers have been subjected to this tactic by American businesses, the Republican Party and by the worker's own greed. It's time to start recognizing how those interests are pitting worker against worker, and thus, devaluing the worth of all American labor.

It's become quite popular in our political arena to vilify teacher unions, unions in general and public sector employees. What are the goals of this vilification? The first goal is to place more teachers, union workers and public sector employees on unemployment. The second goal is to lower the salaries of those workers who remain employed. The final goal is to prevent workers from exercising a collective voice, a right incidentally guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to demand better wages and working conditions.

Americans should understand that when they seek to devalue the work performed by their neighbor they are, in effect, devaluing their own work. When Americans seek to lay off their neighbor from employment, they weaken the economy and make it more likely that they too will be laid off. When Americans seek to silence and hamstring fellow workers in their right to collectively bargain with employers, their ability to demand a fair wage and fair work is also weakened in the process.

Powerful business interests and the GOP have been urging American workers to fight one another in hopes that the American worker will be too weak to demand fair pay and fair working conditions. Their tactic appears to be working, so much so that some folks are willing to work for twenty-five cents per hour. Can slave labor be too far behind?