The classy thread

[Droopy]

Which class are you a member of? I'm a workin' joe, a trucker, and that's what I've been doing for almost 11 years now. I've settled into my role in life and now I even have a little pride in what I do for a living. It wasn't always like that and I have 2 failed businesses and 3 failed attempts at college to prove it. I used to buy into that old saying about America. If you just work hard the sky's the limit. I learned that isn't true for everybody. I've worked hard all of my life and have very little to show for it. Here's a little history for you.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries socialism was starting to get a foot hold in America. So much so that it frightened the wealthy elite. The most useful tool for socialists of that era was the labor union. It was thought that the working class could gain control of the means of production through labor unions and oust the wealthy elite. Working conditions were horrendous in most factories back then. People often worked 12-16 hours of back breaking work 6 days a week. Thousands upon thousands of people died every year while on the job. Workers began to organize and they became a powerful force to contend with. There were many strikes and they were often bloody. It was the socialists on many occasions who were there to organize the workers, negotiate for them, and keep them fed. The workers gradually started to gain concessions. Shorter work weeks and better pay became a reality. That was because the wealthy owners of the businesses were basically frightened into those concessions. They eventually saw them as being good for business. If they didn't give in a little it was thought that America might face a socialist revolution. It is because of the blood and sweat of those early working class people that we now have shorter work weeks, better pay, benefits like health care and pensions, safer working conditions, and paid holidays and vacation. Those early working class heroes are also responsible for the creation of a middle class in America.

So the working class and to a lesser degree the socialists are responsible for the comfortable lives that many Americans enjoy today. But you know what? Those large businesses couldn't sit by and let some of their profits get eaten up by us horrible unpersons. They are now exploiting labor abroad in places like China and Latin America. Those people now face the same reality that our working men and women did 100 years ago.

Think about it when you get your next pay check. Think harder about it when you vote.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good morning, my dear Droopy...

This is a most excellent and thoughtful thread...

Almost too serious for the Lounge!

But I must say that I agree with your points...

And you provided me with some history that I was largely unaware of...

Thank you!

:patriot:

[Droopy]

2. Thanks Peggy

For more history just like that check out A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. It's a big book and an excellent read.

[stuntcat]

3. kicks

nothing to add really.. except my pitty for un-moneyed people who vote for The Rich, and my disrespect for people who bitch about unions as if they can't imagine anything before the last ten years.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. I do think about it a lot

I come from the working class, and I don't ever forget it.

[1gobluedem]

5. I think about this often too

I work in a city that was populated primarily by people from Appalachia and the Deep South who came up to work in the bomber plants in WWII, then in the auto plants -- as was the adjacent township. Nearly every obituary for people in this area who are over 65 shows that they were born in the south and came north for better jobs; they left the coal mines, cotton fields, and hardscrabble farms for a better life. They all note that the deceased retired from one of the auto companies after many years and most also mention a second home, or a hobby the person pursued in retirement. And many, many of the person's children are doctors, or teachers, or lawyers. They were probably the first in their families to go to college; made possible by their parents carving out good, solid, working middle class lives for them. That, in my opinion, is the American Dream and that is why I will not buy a car that was not manufactured by union labor. Union labor turned Michigan into an attractive place to live and work and is responsible for the comfortable living so many of us enjoy. Asian cars may be manufactured in the US but their employees are not union, the companies actively work to bust union organizing, the profits go overseas, and their markets are closed to our auto plants. They're destroying the working middle class and it's wrong.

Read Thom Hartmann's book, Screwed. Very interesting and informative.