I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave

[O.R.I.O.N]

I Was a Warehouse Wage Slave | Mother Jones

Been there done that..was a bitch. Got out of that place ASAP....

 

[gnarlylove]

Hell yeah been there done that too! Fucking terrible. You could work 16 hours every day if your body could handle it and they'd let you even if your body couldn't. It's slavery and we need to recognize it for what it is.

Wage labor is founded on the idea that a worker will produce more than their pay. Say they are paid $10/hr. They must produce a surplus of goods/services that exceeds $10/hr otherwise the employer is making no profit. So fundamental to the system of wage labor is humans producing beyond their own need for the sake of some parasite, the employer, to benefit from this surplus with little effort. This is slavery, hardly different from chattel on in that it's temporary.

 

[Katzndogz]

It will be a much better world when the warehouse workers are replaced by machines and the workers put out in the street. Then they won't have to be wage slaves any more.

 

[O.R.I.O.N]

It will be a much better world when the warehouse workers are replaced by machines and the workers put out in the street. Then they won't have to be wage slaves any more.

Workers Revolution.

 

[gnarlylove]

It will be a much better world when the warehouse workers are replaced by machines and the workers put out in the street. Then they won't have to be wage slaves any more.

Or, instead of being brainwashed into thinking reality is a one way street where all things must become mechanized, we can create machines that empower workers and eliminate the need for managers. Managers are hired mostly to hire and fire people, but you wouldn't have a high turn over rate if people actually were paid decent wages and didn't feel threatened or fired if they thought about improving working conditions.

 

[Moonglow]

If you think that being a warehouse worker is tough, try being a mason...

 

[emilynghiem]

If you think that being a warehouse worker is tough, try being a mason...

Or try working as a factory slave MAKING those products
at subhuman wages under dangerous conditions.

People in other countries would think we were nuts
for complaining of hourly wages and vacation time!

"Getting paid NOT to work? What is your problem with that?"
It's humbling to compare what we complain about today.

 

[initforme]

This thread is the reason for higher education. Then these jobs go unfilled. And that would not be such a bad thing.

 

[Moonglow]

If you think that being a warehouse worker is tough, try being a mason...

Or try working as a factory slave MAKING those products
at subhuman wages under dangerous conditions.

People in other countries would think we were nuts
for complaining of hourly wages and vacation time!

"Getting paid NOT to work? What is your problem with that?"
It's humbling to compare what we complain about today.

I've done work that was never paid for, and I had to cover wages in the loss. Try that and cry some more.... as of today I've been stiffed for about 100k over the last 30 years..and that was just on 2 jobs..

 

[gnarlylove]

If you think that being a warehouse worker is tough, try being a mason...

Or try working as a factory slave MAKING those products
at subhuman wages under dangerous conditions.

People in other countries would think we were nuts
for complaining of hourly wages and vacation time!

"Getting paid NOT to work? What is your problem with that?"
It's humbling to compare what we complain about today.

So true. I recently heard that children in West Africa and the Ivory Coast are abducted and forced to work without pay, extracting chocolate for America's favorite snacks.

This is intolerable and yet we tolerate it. How can we claim to be fighting for justice around the world when every person who has eaten a Nestle bar has supported slave labor and child abductions.

Sometimes I cannot stand being human.

http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/

 

[emilynghiem]

If you think that being a warehouse worker is tough, try being a mason...

Or try working as a factory slave MAKING those products
at subhuman wages under dangerous conditions.

People in other countries would think we were nuts
for complaining of hourly wages and vacation time!

"Getting paid NOT to work? What is your problem with that?"
It's humbling to compare what we complain about today.

So true. I recently heard that children in West Africa and the Ivory Coast are abducted and forced to work without pay, extracting chocolate for America's favorite snacks.

This is intolerable and yet we tolerate it. How can we claim to be fighting for justice around the world when every person who has eaten a Nestle bar has supported slave labor and child abductions.

Sometimes I cannot stand being human.

Slavery in the Chocolate Industry | Food Empowerment Project

These things do keep us humble, and remind us we have a ways to go.

I brought up the issue of replacing slave labor with school "work-study" programs,
and some of my coworkers didn't get it, but one of the managers thought it was insightful to look ahead about shifting production back from China to Mexico and the US.

I think this can be done through the prison and school systems that need reform anyway.

For restitution that is owed for trafficking and crimes, why not require the wrongdoers and organized criminals to take over the factory labor and let the abuse victims attend school.
So we could set up a system of managing the 'credits' and shifting from underpaid slave labor to educational and work credits, and move toward a sustainable system over time.

As crime is reduced because it is prevented by offering meaningful job and education,
then resources would shift toward investing in sustainable development to end slavery.

For you to understand the responsibility for being human, to the point you cannot stand it,
that shows the goodness in the human conscience to seek justice. that's our saving grace.
People like you who have a heart and compassion for the human condition.

Thanks for being here, and I hope to work with you, and any others like you, on implementing real solutions, by organizing resources and projects online.
Not just talking or typing theoretically about what should be done. All it takes is people like you and me, setting up a team to buy out or build a school, and that's enough to change the economy of a region toward independent self-government. Just one community at a time. (like my friend Tim who partnered with a neighbor, just two guys using a phone and a fax to organize students to challenge their university on contracts with vendors that used "slave labor" -- and they had the administration scared they would cause more mob disruptions on campus. Just two guys did all that, with no budget, who I hope to honor by taking their campus plans and replicating these in every community, especially along the border, to replace human trafficking and related crimes: http://www.rightsfortheworkers.org)

If you think it's just a drop in the bucket. Remember the whole ocean is made up of drops.
You wouldn't have such a conscience if you weren't meant to do great things with it.
I look forward to seeing what those things are! Let's go for it, Let's do it! ;-)

P.S. I was about to give up, too. but this weekend I met with a community leader
who also saw the potential for reform in setting up neighborhood schools and teaching economics and financial independence to the community.
Bingo! Why not invest in that, with all the money currently going into political campaigns that do nothing to liberate the poor communities.
Can't those resources be better directed into sustainable longterm development?
The more people figure it out, it will become the norm. That's what I want to see happen.

 

[emilynghiem]

If you think that being a warehouse worker is tough, try being a mason...

Or try working as a factory slave MAKING those products
at subhuman wages under dangerous conditions.

People in other countries would think we were nuts
for complaining of hourly wages and vacation time!

"Getting paid NOT to work? What is your problem with that?"
It's humbling to compare what we complain about today.

I've done work that was never paid for, and I had to cover wages in the loss. Try that and cry some more.... as of today I've been stiffed for about 100k over the last 30 years..and that was just on 2 jobs..

Yes I had to really struggle to hold my tongue and not complain.
been working two jobs to support nonprofit groups and volunteers
getting politically run out of our historic district, when the govt resources
were abused to funnel MILLIONS of public funds into destroying national history.

And on top of all that, the city wants to take more land and ability to run schools and programs AWAY from the community. When that's NOT what I was investing my labor and money to support. It was to support the community organizing and rebuilding to take BACK the control of managing for themselves, not more political slavery by the institutions causing all the waste and destruction to begin with! i didn't agree to work so hard for that!

I was really depressed and fixing to give up, when I finally met a community leader who gets the concept of insisting on taking back OWNERSHIP. Not begging or politicking for it, not giving money to politicians and hoping they will help us "if they get elected." But putting money directing there TO BEGIN WITH, and making THAT the norm.
FINALLY found someone who GETS IT.
Can't do it by myself, but if other people unite and stand up for taking back community ownership, I can back them up and pour all my support behind them.
The City can't say no if all the citizens start rallying support to take back their schools and surrounding property to manage their own districts as an "education program" to teach independence.
what a concept.

Otherwise it is "involuntary servitude".
And I did NOT agree to work all these years for more of the same garbage. No way!
No ["Rosa Parks"] Way!!!

 

[Moonglow]

Or try working as a factory slave MAKING those products
at subhuman wages under dangerous conditions.

People in other countries would think we were nuts
for complaining of hourly wages and vacation time!

"Getting paid NOT to work? What is your problem with that?"
It's humbling to compare what we complain about today.

I've done work that was never paid for, and I had to cover wages in the loss. Try that and cry some more.... as of today I've been stiffed for about 100k over the last 30 years..and that was just on 2 jobs..

Yes I had to really struggle to hold my tongue and not complain.
been working two jobs to support nonprofit groups and volunteers
getting politically run out of our historic district, when the govt resources
were abused to funnel MILLIONS of public funds into destroying national history.

And on top of all that, the city wants to take more land and ability to run schools and programs AWAY from the community. When that's NOT what I was investing my labor and money to support. It was to support the community organizing and rebuilding to take BACK the control of managing for themselves, not more political slavery by the institutions causing all the waste and destruction to begin with! i didn't agree to work so hard for that!

I was really depressed and fixing to give up, when I finally met a community leader who gets the concept of insisting on taking back OWNERSHIP. Not begging or politicking for it, not giving money to politicians and hoping they will help us "if they get elected." But putting money directing there TO BEGIN WITH, and making THAT the norm.
FINALLY found someone who GETS IT.
Can't do it by myself, but if other people unite and stand up for taking back community ownership, I can back them up and pour all my support behind them.
The City can't say no if all the citizens start rallying support to take back their schools and surrounding property to manage their own districts as an "education program" to teach independence.
what a concept.

Otherwise it is "involuntary servitude".
And I did NOT agree to work all these years for more of the same garbage. No way!
No ["Rosa Parks"] Way!!!

What town was that?

 

[gnarlylove]

emily I was a young volunteer, a green one at that, who worked with inner city homeless in Chicago. That summer I wrestled intensely with issues of saving the world. I concluded that it wasn't worth my whole life because I couldn't do it alone. Then after years more of partial volunteering intertwined with drug abuse I came out of that funk. It's been almost two years now and I am learning more about what actions are possible. I appreciate your efforts and am totally on board with creating change. I wanted to get your take on Noam Chomsky, if you've happened to run across his works. He's been instrumental in my understanding of the bigger picture. While I'm still in recovery, I'm focusing my time on learning what I knew years ago but was too dejected and lacked encouragment from peers and family. So I internalized it and began slipping away from altruism to ego. Now I'm finding a global community and it's great. Do you have any persons you'd recommend checking out? esp. videos on youtube.

 

[bripat9643]

Hell yeah been there done that too! Fucking terrible. You could work 16 hours every day if your body could handle it and they'd let you even if your body couldn't. It's slavery and we need to recognize it for what it is.

Wage labor is founded on the idea that a worker will produce more than their pay. Say they are paid $10/hr. They must produce a surplus of goods/services that exceeds $10/hr otherwise the employer is making no profit. So fundamental to the system of wage labor is humans producing beyond their own need for the sake of some parasite, the employer, to benefit from this surplus with little effort. This is slavery, hardly different from chattel on in that it's temporary.

I'll bet you claim you aren't a socialist.

 

[bripat9643]

emily I was a young volunteer, a green one at that, who worked with inner city homeless in Chicago. That summer I wrestled intensely with issues of saving the world. I concluded that it wasn't worth my whole life because I couldn't do it alone. Then after years more of partial volunteering intertwined with drug abuse I came out of that funk. It's been almost two years now and I am learning more about what actions are possible. I appreciate your efforts and am totally on board with creating change. I wanted to get your take on Noam Chomsky, if you've happened to run across his works. He's been instrumental in my understanding of the bigger picture. While I'm still in recovery, I'm focusing my time on learning what I knew years ago but was too dejected and lacked encouragment from peers and family. So I internalized it and began slipping away from altruism to ego. Now I'm finding a global community and it's great. Do you have any persons you'd recommend checking out? esp. videos on youtube.

No wonder your head is so screwed up.

 

[gnarlylove]

emily I was a young volunteer, a green one at that, who worked with inner city homeless in Chicago. That summer I wrestled intensely with issues of saving the world. I concluded that it wasn't worth my whole life because I couldn't do it alone. Then after years more of partial volunteering intertwined with drug abuse I came out of that funk. It's been almost two years now and I am learning more about what actions are possible. I appreciate your efforts and am totally on board with creating change. I wanted to get your take on Noam Chomsky, if you've happened to run across his works. He's been instrumental in my understanding of the bigger picture. While I'm still in recovery, I'm focusing my time on learning what I knew years ago but was too dejected and lacked encouragment from peers and family. So I internalized it and began slipping away from altruism to ego. Now I'm finding a global community and it's great. Do you have any persons you'd recommend checking out? esp. videos on youtube.

No wonder your head is so screwed up.

Since you prefer dictatorship and locking people up who disagree with your entire worldview, then I think you're forgetting yourself. You want to live in a world where everyone agrees with you and if they don't they should be made extinct. Yeah, that's not messed up in the head or anything. That's some kind of massive Messiah Complex ya got there.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Hell yeah been there done that too! Fucking terrible. You could work 16 hours every day if your body could handle it and they'd let you even if your body couldn't. It's slavery and we need to recognize it for what it is.

Wage labor is founded on the idea that a worker will produce more than their pay. Say they are paid $10/hr. They must produce a surplus of goods/services that exceeds $10/hr otherwise the employer is making no profit. So fundamental to the system of wage labor is humans producing beyond their own need for the sake of some parasite, the employer, to benefit from this surplus with little effort. This is slavery, hardly different from chattel on in that it's temporary.

 

[gnarlylove]

hey iam, try again. Maybe you can make a contribution to this thread instead of loving to hate. Ever thought that what you're thinking is really just a reflection of what's going on inside your head? In fact, there's no other way to think about it. So I wish you weren't a sad hater, but if that's your choice I won't stop you from infecting your brain with stupidity.

 

[jasonnfree]

It will be a much better world when the warehouse workers are replaced by machines and the workers put out in the street. Then they won't have to be wage slaves any more.

We could have a national minimum income to cover that. People shouldn't be throw aways in the pursuit of profit at whatever cost.