Ideological Differences Aside…

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No matter which side of the ideological divide you find yourself on (or even if you can place yourself right smack in the middle), I think we can all agree that the current economic and government systems aren’t working for us and haven’t been for a very long time…if they ever were.

 

In the beginning of our much revered (and frequently reviled) “great nation” only white, property-owning men were designated inheritors of the American cornucopia of prospective future abundance, according to the framers of our nation.

 

Over time, most people have been enfranchised (allowed to vote, to work in occupations originally denied them, to eat at food counters and avail themselves of desegregated restrooms) but the initial ‘intent’ of the founding document appears to remain pretty much intact: property-owning white men still prevail easily in the halls of Congress and in most other extended organizations. 

 

The rest of us “serve” The Man. We’re allowed the crumbs that fall off his bread and cake.  We bake the bread and cake; he eats it. We get the crumbs by way of a puny pay check.

 

The laws are written and created to serve and benefit The Man. They’re voted into being by politicians who are in The Man’s back pocket. And most politicians these days are multimillionaires; they are The Man.

 

The rest of us don’t matter all that much to them. They give us just enough to keep us addicted to our various needs and guilty pleasures (mortgage/rent, cell phones, games, sports, booze, cigarettes, marijuana, whatever) so they’re sure we’ll have to return to work every week to get the money it takes to push our pleasure levers for another week… That’s all. Maybe a tad more.

 

Living pay check to pay check is the game plan they’ve devised for the rest of us.  (Military families, too.) Add to that the reality that they’re constantly stirring the pot against “the other” (black, brown, red, white, Jew, Muslim, Christian, LGBT, conservatives, progressives, lukewarm patriots, etc.) so that we’re so afraid of a (potential) rainbow coalition that we won’t even consider uniting with them to demand justice, and they have us right where they want us.

 

But what would happen if we all decided to “take the day/week off” and stay home…or to work only as long as we need to every day to offset the advantage that white men have in the workplace and marketplace? (That is, what if we white women worked 78% fewer hours than men who are doing the same jobs as we are (for women of color, you’d work even less, based on how much less you get than your white counterpart)?  What if white women left the workplace at 2:30 instead of 5 and called it a day, since that would be “unpaid” time when compared to the money white men were making doing the same work in the same position? What if women of color took off at noon for the same reason?  (There is a reason why divulging your income to fellow workers is a no-no. Break the rules! Find a way to find out about wage disparity in your organization. The rules are designed to keep you in the dark, so they’re immoral! Go to HR and politely ask! If they deny you the information, call Labor and Industries and let them know. They can follow up for you or give you other ideas.)

 

Do you see where I’m going with this?  How long could oligarchs and plutocrats remain rich when women and all people of color (men included) worked only as long as it took to equal the pay check that white men get for doing the same jobs?

 

Could this backfire? I suppose. But if it did, you’d have a case to take to Labor and Industries. Imagine multiple millions of L&I claims pouring in on the same day?  It would blow their minds.

 

People should be paid equally for equal work. Period. No reasonable person would deny that.

 

I don’t know what it’s going to take to kneecap the current seriously-skewed system to make American enterprise a level playing field for the rest of us, but unless we do something outside the box we’re going to keep getting what we’ve always been allowed to receive by rich white men, instead of what we deserve. Not a dime more.

 

United with all other individuals with the same beef, we ought to be able to convince the powers-that-be to honor our contributions at the same rate they honor their male counterparts’ contributions. In fact, we ought to be able to improve and increase the lot of all people–including the white men who work the same jobs we do–by demanding adequate pay for the substantial benefits we deliver to reaching their goals. 

 

We can create a diverse people’s union and demand better wages, safer working conditions and a more robust lifestyle that honors work-life balance, the way so many other first world countries do. (See Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore’s documentary, to find out more about the dramatic differences between their systems and ours.)

 

Case in Point

 

The writing agency Men with Pens began as a ruse.  Men with Pens is owned by a woman who began to get a lot more money and respect than she was getting  for doing the same job men do, simply by changing the name of her company so it appeared to be an enterprise operated by men!

 

That’s how flimsy the veneer is between what we’re allowed to earn and what we deserve as women or as people of color.

 

How much money do minimum-wage workers bring in to McDonald’s or Wendy’s by taking and cooking orders and dealing with the public for an hour? Hundreds? Thousands? I’ll bet it’s thousands above and beyond their operating costs.

 

Why not ask your employers to take, cook and bag the orders and take the money for an hour or a day and see if they still agree that minimum wage is “fair compensation” for the money you make them. On her show, Oprah Winfrey worked in a fast food window taking orders one afternoon and she was amazed and convinced that your job is worth a lot more than you’re getting.

 

Why should your bosses get obscenely-massive compensation for your labor unless you are also benefiting sufficiently to be able to care for your own needs and those of your loved ones while putting 10% away every payday toward your retirement and having some “disposable income” left to see a movie, enjoy a romantic date night with your spouse or significant other, or something else?

 

There needs to be an uprising that shakes up the powers-that-be.  I’m not sure what form it should take but I’m watching what others are suggesting and if everyone can decide on a united, single action that will do the trick, I’m IN!  I hope you are, too.

 

Because enough is enough. They’ve had it their way for too damned long. It’s time that everyone receives adequate/ample benefit from our labors…yours and mine.

 

https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web

 

 

 

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Kris Smith

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