Once upon a time when the 60-70 hour work week lingered as a distant memory, and the 48- hour week freshly lodged in the memory cells of workers, the 40 hour work-week became virtually universal, together with an annual paid two-week vacation. Some trade unions were able to gain a 38-hour week. In addition, though normally the pay-scale was lower, untold millions of white collar workers enjoyed a 35 hour work-week, which in the main was negated by commuting time.
The concept in those days was to share the workload of a growing working population. An employer of ten now required twelve to reach full production. The theory was to sustain a thriving workforce that would enhance consumption but reduce profits. Employers and corporations, of course, saw through this and passed the added costs onto the consumer. This move led to a rift between worker and consumer even though one and the same. Seldom was the responsibility placed on corporations and investors. More often blame was attributed to unions and their alleged crime connections. White collar crime and indiscretions were whitewashed by corporate lawyers.
Over the decades, because of massive employment and entrepreneurism, consumers grew in influence and smarts by pressuring labor and business into moderating prices — everyone loves a bargain. The suggested price or the old fair trade price became history and set the stage for the pursuit of cheaper labor, starting an exodus to the southern states where union influence was practically non-existent. Now, of course, the pursuit has extended beyond our borders to the slave market of poor countries where the seventy hour work week has again reared its ugly head.
Reagan illusionists see this as a bright sunny morning for business and consumer — not unlike the aristocracy of the Old South wherein wealth in the hands of the few from the sweat of the backs of the many was the rule of this sunny but shameless era. The Old South argued that the blacks were far better off than had they not been brought here in chains; and the white trash should show gratitude for their right to read and vote, not to mention the gift of being invulnerable to lynching. Albeit not as gross, the attitude is the same today. Those who are endowed with sufficient intelligence and ambition — driving them back to the sixty hour week — and thus above the unwashed, are under the illusion that the ones below rightly belong in that niche just as natural selection dictates that monkeys be monkeys.
What the illusionists are incapable of understanding is that, barring criminals and terrorists, many among the incompetent are such because they are kept from the same level playing ground to play out reasonable success. Further, those who are helplessly non-competitive should — as are the handicapped and others of misfortune — at least be respected by the winners, who may even make the attempt subsequently to lay the groundwork for a gentler nation. Of course, there will always be winners and losers, but we can for the latter let them keep their shirts.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: June 19, 2004.