Return of a Working Class Hero
Once again I have been called to do battle with the imperial forces of oppression of the working class.
In San Joaquin County we have a thriving wine industry. Many square miles of land is planted in grape vines. Many agricultural workers (mostly undocumented guests in the United States) are necessary to do all of the necessary chores attendant to the raising of grapes. The Great State of California, the people of which I represent in the hallowed halls of justice, in their infinite wisdom have passed laws to protect the previously mentioned workers from exploitation. The laws require: that workers have training in how to recognize heat illness in its various forms; that potable water be provided for the workers in sufficient quantity for the workers to continually replenish the loss of water due to heating; that workers be provided with shade from which they can escape the direct rays of the sun durning work breaks; that the employer have a plan in place in case a worker in the field who is injure or seriously ill (such as sun stroke) which tells everyone what should be done and who should be contacted; that should an employer fail in one of the above rules and should such failure result in the death of a worker that this becomes a felony offense. The Great State of California has, interestingly, enacted a law which relieves the land owner and those who lease the land to engage in farming enterprises (many of whom are multi-million dollar corporations) are not held responsible for this if the contract out the farm work to Farm Labor Contractors. The Farm Labor Contractor then provides laborers which it pays the salary of and is responsible for the well being of. The Farm Labor Contractor in turn receives payment from the grower. The Farm Labor Contractor is the person or persons upon whom the law falls should the above laws be flaunted. A 17-year old woman who was an undocumented resident of this country for four months got a job working for a farm labor contractor working for a Farm Labor Contractor. On the third day of her employment she collapsed in the field and died two days later of heat stroke. There was no shade in the field and water was at least a ten-minute walk from where she collapsed. There was no training provided for any of the workers regarding symptoms or what should be done in the case of emergency. The supervisor in the field down played the seriousness of what was occurring. The supervisor told the boyfriend of the woman who collapsed that it would be bad if the authorities should find out that the woman had been working when this happened and that it might result in the woman, the boyfriend and the supervisor all being deported. For this reason no one called for medical attention for the woman When the woman collapsed it was about 15 minutes before the working day was done. The woman was carried to the van in which she had arrived to wait 15-30 minutes for the others in the car pool to get off and come to the van. The woman was placed in the van. The temperature was 95 degrees fahrenheit and said van had been standing in the sun for 10 hours. The temperature within the van was likely above 140 (f) when she was first placed inside. Eventually, when everyone in the van pool was at the van they left with her unconscious body being held by her boyfriend (age 19). They had a cell phone but no medical assistance was called for. Instead they drove two miles to a small store where rubbing alcohol was purchased to rub on the young woman to see if she would revive. Several minutes were waisted there while the rest of the group purchased beer, sodas and snacks. Across the street from the store was a fire station which had personnel who could have provided immediate first aid and could have called for additional emergency medical help or could have rapidly transported the woman to the nearest hospital. As they left the supervisor called to see if the woman had revived. When told that she had not, he told the boyfriend that they should take the woman to a medical clinic near where the girl lived. The clinic was 45 minutes away, there was a hospital with an emergency room 30 minutes away. The supervisor also told the boyfriend to tell the medical personnel that she had been jogging near home and collapse. The woman was taken to the clinic. The clinic called an ambulance and she was transported to a nearby hospital. When she arrived her temperature was 108.4. Over the next two days her internal organs began to shut down. It turned out she was two months pregnant, though she may have been unaware of this, and she miscarried then died. I have been tasked with righting this great wrong. The owner of the Farm Labor company and the safety coordinator are being prosecuted for all of the safety violations and for causing the death of the young woman. I will make the world safe for the working man/woman. |
Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
This sounds familiar.
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Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
Hey,
You're just south of me :) I'm in Contra Costa, CA (Walnut Creek to be specific...) |
Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
Yeah, it's quite a typical storyline.
We import Thai berry pickers and have them work as entrepreneurs so as to avoid having to pay them minimum wages. The company that brings them here pays for flights, accommodation, and equipment and charges the Thai berry boys accordingly. As they're registered as entrepreneurs, they earn what they sell, in essence, meaning that the company transporting them here purchases the berries and so so. They earn about 40 euros per day, over a 16 to 18 hour day of work, which would technically be illegal, but it's not since they're entrepreneurs, thus there's no essential employer, coming down with a hourly pay of two and odd euros. Incidentally, one of them got stabbed to death in a forest but nobody really cares. What's left of them return home "rich" by their standards, so they're happy. The western legal system concerning the "rights" of the working class (ie. employees in general) is a crumbling piece nevertheless due to global pressure on labour markets and the expenses the system inherently creates. So how is your battle panning out? |
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My wife is a graduate of Concord High School. |
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This is pretty basic stuff and I'd appreciate it if you'd all take the time to educate yourself before bashing capitalism like adolescent children. If the woman had embraced freedom more, her internal organs wouldn't have failed.
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Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
It is hardly a question of capitalism vs non-capitalism.
Capitalism, when working correctly, should be the more efficient use of resources winning over the less efficient. Your workers are a resource and thus you should want to use them efficiently. Killing off your workers really isn't the most efficient use of resources unless you deliberately murder particular individuals to send a message to the rest of the workers. Nearly justifiable in many instances. |
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In your second sentence you suggest this wouldn't happen if capitalism were "working correctly". Why do you think capitalism is not working in this case? |
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Capitalism isn't working in this case because free markets don't exist (hence there cannot really be effective capitalism). If markets worked along the lines of Adam Smith, the employer treating his employees this badly in order to obtain more profit would inevitably find himself without employees because they'd simply change to another employer. Income differences aren't a result of free market capitalism. They're a result of protectionism, imperialism, and nationalism (in a vague fashion). (edit. generally, discussions over "pure" systems are a little bit moot since no socialism or capitalism really exists, and there's little leeway for either to truly exist. as said, these problems aren't really cases set against pure systems since, well. that) |
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Because leverage (financial or military) exists, and will always exist, and there will be people who do not behave rationally, and people who pursue political goals that don't make economic sense, the idea of a free market capitalism in a global world is simply not going to materialize. It's vastly pointless to blame the lower class getting spanked on a financial system when the cause truly is human bestiality. Soviet Union had an attempt at "socialism", but in fact the communistic system they had glorified the leveraged people (communist party leadership) at the cost of the lower class people. |
Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
Total equality would be boring.
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Apparently this has gone over TomKat's head, so let me just expand on that.. I thought Tietaja was actually advocating a "real" capitalism when he was suggesting the bastardized version we currently use is what has given rise to the problems mentioned so far. It turns out he isn't and I agree with his suggestion that a "pure" capitalism wouldn't work either.
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Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
oh sorry i thought you were just being a douche and trying to be condescending by posting something short and inane.
my apologies! (genuinely) i can't take the rep back but will do when i can/if i remember... |
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However, it isn't likely to break outr any time.
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With unskilled (and therefore easily replaceable) workers it can be more efficient to work someone to death than to keep them fit and healthy. |
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If you would care to clarify the distinction you propose, I would be happy to limit myself to that distinction in any discussion. |
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Things can be equal and different.
Things cannot be the same and different. |
Re: Return of a Working Class Hero
Thank you. Sameness would be boring.
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