What your Labor is Worth!

A couple of years ago, a friend shared the plight of his ex-girlfriend with me. Apparently, the baby boomer Ph.D, semi-literate lady had a very, very successful business, or, at least, had had a very successful business for a decade or two. However, she had a habit of abusing her office staff, telling them how useless they were and how she was overpaying them. The office staff, having had enough of her abuse, all resigned on the same day and walked out. They had, obviously, been planning it for some time as they all had other jobs to go to. The Ph.D CEO was devastated. There was nobody to answer her phones, take orders, ensure that orders went out, and more. In short, her ‘successful’ business came to a standstill. More to the point, she came very close to losing her business, and she lost a substantial amount of money as a result of the walk out. So much for the ‘lack of value’ that her employees provided her.

It takes me back circa 1972 when I was working with a couple of other girls in a hotel and the head honcho guy of the hotel wanted to make some changes that would screw us over badly. One of the girls decided to fight back, planning on a mass walk out. Within a few hours, the word got back to management, and the plans of the head honcho guy were never heard of again. In a nutshell, labor is vitally important to management, and the reason that Thatcher and Reagan so badly wanted to crush the Union movements in the 80s was because Unions were adversely affecting the excessive profits of the owner class. 

So What is the True Worth of Labor?

The marketing dictum is that a product is worth what the people will pay for it. This means that someone will pay a lot more for water if they’re dying of thirst in the Sahara Desert than would if they had tapped water in Los Angeles. It also means that in a world where electronic robots are replacing people, there are fewer and fewer jobs, so employers can increasingly lower wages because people are desperate for an income.



I do not believe that this situation is going to get any better. As fast as new technology brings new jobs on board, so fast population growth is eliminating any discrepancy between the number of jobs required and the number of jobs available.



At some point, we have to ask ourselves this question: Do we allow people to starve and live sub-standard lives because a) Profiteers will only pay what they can get away with b) there are fewer jobs available than there are people c) what should people be paid?



The hard truth is that while we have people who can manipulate the labor situation to suit their own greed and needs, labor is only worth what they can get away with. Until we are able to find an accurate way of measing what labor is worth, those that employ labor will pay them what they are worth. It is no idle comment that entrepreneurs, especially those that are in the leading seats of immense corporations, are already reintroducing the concept of slave labor. They are justifying it in Africa as the only means of getting the continent to work...

A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success

So what is your labor worth? I would say that one can only answer that when one knows how the worth of labor is evaluated, and right now, the only worth of labor is how much profit it makes for a few rich men. In fact, the worth of labor is pushed lower and lower in order to further enrich a handful of men.



Ethics comprises rules that are based on the greater good for the greater number over the longest period of time. When   labor is only paid a pittance so that a handful can make more than they will ever need, then this does not serve the greater good. In other words, it's unethical.



So how can we measure the true worth of labor. I think we can do that by thinking about what labor accomplishes.

1. Labor enables people to build shelter - a necessity for life to survive in harsh wealther elements.


2. Labor enables people to grow food - a necessity for life to survive.


3. Labor enables people to exploit their creativity for a more comfortable lifestyle

None of the three above attributes of labor can be defined in terms of money. In fact, labor is a vital necessity for the well being of mankind. Of course, labor has to be concentrated on the areas where it benefits mankind, and when it doesn't, then labor is not for the good of mankind.

So when a few use labor to create items that will enrich them, and only them, then labor is exploited in the worst possible sense. Can someone please tell me what lasting use the 50th billion rubber duck will serve?

Surely labor is worth a percentage relative to the rewards generated?



In the pirate ships of old, whatever bounty was taken was divided into a share basis. The captain might get 14 shares and the ordinary sailor might get 1 share while the cook got 2 shares and the first mate got 6 shares, but it was, in some sense, a better system than the one we currently have.



Wage slavery is currently rampant all over the world, and American companies and corporations are guiltier than most. If you had to consider that slaves got board and lodging free, plus in some instances an education, then how different is wage slavery? After all, when one has paid for board and lodging, there's nothing left over for anything else!



Very few people are today paid a wage that justifies their labor. Their only measurement of what their labor is worth is what other people in their field are being paid. However, when the entire system of salary and wages has been corrupted, that's not a method that actually works.

Indentured Servants on the Rise

Entrepreneurs currently have many tricks to make people work for very little

money or even to pay them to work for them (I kid you not).

So what is the best motive for running a business?

We need to design a system that enables the individual, the community, and the environment that works together for the greatest good for the greatest number over the longest period of time.



Remember that the greatest good is not the perfect good. There is no such thing as a perfect good on our earth. We live in a Mother Nature evolutionary system in which, while overall there is cooperation, there is also a ‘one’s man’s meat is another man’s poison’ element. All of that needs to be taken into consideration when designing a new system to sustain us.

Rethinking Work

New Approaches to Labor

There are new questions that need to be asked about labor. You will have noticed that despite an increase in jobs, there is a greater increase in the population. So, regardless of whether jobs are increasing, there will be a greater and greater number of people that are unemployed. This is the result of the mechanisation of labor.



And that's good.



It leaves humankind to spend time to contemplate and create the greater questions of our universe - if they are not left to live agonizing lives in poverty because a small percentage of humankind think that they're entitled to most of the pie!



We need to understand that labor serves a purpose, and that purpose is NOT to enrich a few. The purpose of labor is to serve life - all of life!



When labor is not required, does that mean that because it is not required, that people must starve? I don't think so. It means that labor has accomplished what it needs to. One cannot do more than needs to be done, and to cripple and injure people because there is no further labor needed is neither Christian, spiritual, ethical nor civilized.