On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, bgt wrote:
On Wed, 2004-01-14 at 00:20, bgt wrote:
On Tue, 2004-01-13 at 10:48, cubic-dog wrote:
in force, because, we finally get slave, indentured servants who will either take the 90 cents and hour or be deported.
This kind of rhetoric is extremely irritating. If they can be deported, they are neither slaves or indentured servants.
... Anyway... "be productive or be deported" does not constitute
I don't think I said that, you put it in quotes, implying I did. It's an okay paraphrase though, so we'll take it like that. More like I said, without regard to what you DEALT for, the is no impetus on the "man" to pay what was agreed to. If you don't like it, you will be deported. This does a nice job of creating a new, even lower class. It substantially lowers the bar for wage negotiation. The US Department of Labor has already published guides for business outlining how to avoid paying overtime. http://www.thetip.org/art_689_icle.html This new work of the Bush, just really helps cap the issue. The ditch diggers in question, were -as a group- being paid (I asked) $500 to put in that run of conduit. As there were six of them, and it took a couple of days, well, do the math. Much cheaper than renting a ditchwitch and operator. They had done this before, and would do it again. Some runs go better than others, and I'll be some days they might actually make as much as a 7/11 clerk. But not many. What happens when the "man" arbitrarily decides to stiff them from their payment? Will the labor department come to mitigate? Or will immigration come to deport? What's more likely under the proposed "guest worker" rule?
slavery, and neither does the fact that someone is willing to work for substantially less than you. In fact, it is only Free people who can sell their product (including their own labor) for whatever they want (and, obviously, that someone will pay).
Who can sell their labour for whatever they want? I am only aware of folks who can sell their labour for what the market will bear. As long as they only want the status quo, well, then that's fine. When the market will only bear 90p, Well, making the note on the townhouse is gonna be kinda tricky, ain't it?
--bgt