I had a conversation with some of my colleagues the other day about how expensive everyday life has become of late. "I spent 100 euro at the supermarket the other day and barely filled one shopping bag!", one of them said. "Yes," another replied, "it's getting hard even for us who are lucky to have an employer that still pays reasonable wages; my old man who has to live on his meager pension and government allowance can't cope anymore..."
source: YouTube
In this conversation I mainly kept quiet for the most part, but got triggered when our employer was mentioned as one that pays "fair" or "reasonable" wages; I could stay silent no more... You see, I live in the Netherlands, and our word for "employer" is ""werkgever; translated to English that means "the one that gives you work", or "work-giver". I got triggered because, as is so often the case, people simply have no grasp of what their true situation is in an economical or political sense. Let me explain.
Employers do not provide jobs! That's not their intent, hence my aversion against the Dutch word for employers. They don't "give" anything. In a capitalist economy "giving" is suicide. "Yes, maybe, but they do create jobs," one of my co-workers responded, "without them we wouldn't have a job or an income." Sure, that's true, but the creation of jobs is not their intent, it's not why they started the business. In capitalism the sole purpose of any business is to make a profit. And in the cutthroat competitive environment in which they operate they have to be better at making profits than their competitors, lest they go under and the jobs they've "created" disappear.
The discussion started with a bunch of people complaining about how expensive everything's become in this age of inflation, which is another reason I got triggered by someone being grateful for the job and income his employer provides him with. That's just the exact opposite of what's really happening. I'm certain that, when it comes to voting in the democratic process, this poor understanding of the true relationships between employer, employee, owners, workers and customers, is much of the reason why so many people ultimately vote against their own self interest, and against the interests of the class they belong to. And although the Dutch word for employer is particularly misleading, the same poor understanding of these relationships is prevalent throughout the western world.
The English expression, "to employ", is much more honest. You can employ things as well as people, as it simply means "to use" or "to make use of". Here's what the Online Etymology Dictionary has to say about the word "employer" in relationship with our modern use of the word:
[...] Sense of "hire, engage" first recorded in English 1580s, from meaning "involve in a particular purpose," which arose in Late Latin. Related: Employed; employing; employable.
source: Online Etymology Dictionary
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about "employment":
Employees work in return for wages, which can be paid on the basis of an hourly rate, by piecework or an annual salary, depending on the type of work an employee does, the prevailing conditions of the sector and the bargaining power between the parties.
source: Wikipedia
Take special note of the "bargaining power between the parties"; one employee has significantly less bargaining power than the employer, which is why unionization is fought tooth and nail by the capitalist powers all over the world, and individual workers are told that the bargaining of their personal wages is their personal responsibility... But I digress. What I want you to notice is that your run-of-the-mill explanation of these terms all leave out the simple truth of the situation.
In the discussion about the economy getting harder to cope with, everyone complains about products and commodities getting more expensive. And yes, there's also complaints about the wages falling behind inflation. But it would be much simpler, much clearer and much more honest, to call a spade a spade; employers buy labor, just like you and I buy stuff at the groceries. The real question then becomes: why does the price of everything in the market rise much more than the price of this particular commodity called "labor"?
Simple: it's because of the power imbalance between the powers of labor and the powers of private ownership. It doesn't take a genius to see that our capitalist societies are built from the ground up to protect private ownership. I'm going to simplify enormously here, but let's just assume that this means that the more a person owns, the more protection our society grants them. What we now know as the police historically has been used to protect the private property of the rich, to bust unions, and to chase after escaped slaves; "to protect and serve" the common folks has never been the intent behind them, just as "creating jobs" isn't the intent of employers. Their intent is to own the means of production and labor is but one of those means. In the corporation's internal bookkeeping "labor" appears in the negative column, in the column of costs; they speak of the "cost of labor".
To satisfy their primary objective, employers thus try to reduce the cost of labor any which way they can, just like they try to reduce any other cost to maximize their profits in a mad dash to not go under in the competitive field. Like I said: the English words "employers" and "employees" are much more honest than the Dutch words "work-givers" and "work-takers", because ultimately employees are used to produce a product and profit, just like the machines and tools are used to the same end.
Now you also know why, under capitalism, there can never be full employment. Full employment, simply put, is a situation where everyone who's able and willing to work has a job. That doesn't work for the owners. Unemployment of large numbers of willing and able workers is necessary to keep the price (cost) of labor low. Your employer can always then say, if you demand a higher wage in the so called free and balanced negotiation, "hey, if you won't do the job, there are ten other, less fortunate people who'd gladly take your place, so take it or leave it." The threat of poverty, of losing "benefits" like health insurance, will have the employee take it in 99 percent of the time.
So, to circle back to why I started this rant, the above is all to say that everyone should be taught at least the basics of what Karl Marx had to say about capitalism. Everyone should be aware of what class they belong to. Even if you think you are, you're not a capitalist; capitalists are the 0.01 percent of the people who actually own the means of production. You're a worker, part of the working class. And because you don't own anything, all that's left for you to sell is your time, your muscle-power and your brain-power, which you sell to the true capitalists. And don't forget this: you sell the best years of your life and the best hours of the day, and you're never getting paid enough for that. Read Marx, you'll get a much better idea about the true power-dynamics within a capitalist economy.
I'll leave you with an interview I saw today with Hasan Piker, a YouTuber and Twitch streamer who's a socialist slash communist like myself. The true discussion starts around the 55 minute mark when they discuss UBI (Universal Basic Income); the rest is Hasan telling how he got where he is now personally...
Confronting Hasan Piker | Why Capitalism Is Horrible (The Dark Truth)
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