note: again imho, very relevant videos below article at:http://article.wn.com/view/2010/04/15/Until_Workism_Is_Confronted/ WorldNews.com 2010-04-15 Article by WorldNews.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. President Barack Obama was right to demand accountability for the worst mining disaster in 40 years, which killed 29 coal workers in West Virginia. But while the government calls for an investigation of the tragedy and demands accountability, there is another specter haunting America other than the violation of work place safety rules, corporate abuse of workers rights, massive unemployment and underemployment, and low wages. Another specter is "workism." To prevent another West Virginia Mine Tragedy and to leave no stone unturned, as U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller promised, workism will have to be confronted. Simply put, workism is the new racism. It is an extermely biased view and a feeling of contempt towards those who belong to the working classes. Since capitalism is based on usury and therefore, an individual's worth consists in the accumulation of wealth-which the moneyed classes make on the half-paid toil of workers-it is especially disdain towards laborers who make only an existing or minimum wage. Workism is where the rich believe their professions and lives are superior and the quantity and quality of liberties should be greater than those of common laborers. In other words, some workers are more important than others. Miners, cooks, cashiers, farmers, custodians, waitresses and waiters, teachers, mechanics, receptionists, secretaries, and construction workers are often treated inferior because of the work they do and the little pay they receive. By recognizing that workism exists, a government controlled by wealthy owners and their massive corporations-that heavily influence bills, legislation, executive orders, and court decisions-can start to be questioned. By understanding workism, a new and more egalitarian society would be imagined and realized too. Such a society would have a pluralism of workers in the government, that would be responsible for creating and passing new legislation to limit the abusive powers of large and impersonal corporations. When was the last time a waitress, mechanic, store clerk, miner, sanitation worker, oil rig worker, stocker, secretary, teacher, or truck driver, ever became elected to Congress or the White House, let alone have an equal opportunity to pursue such a goal? Sadly, workism has undervalued workers and their contributions to American society. It has prevented progress and the ability and practicality to correctly govern. Will this new economic segregation, or workism, which is based on one's profession and amount of pay, ever be confronted? By using the word workism and thinking about its concepts, America can develop a working-class conscience, value its undervalued laborers, and someday have workers truly become a part of the U.S. Government, as are the wealthy and political elite. Until then, the revolving door of a few CEO's, politicians, overpaid media pundits who falsely propagate a workers paradise, and high-ranking Pentagon officials-all of which hoarded two-thirds of the $6 trillion in wages last year-will continue to go unabated. This leaves very little money for the rest of America's workers. In a Plutocratic system, where the wealthy rule and make laws that continue to help them accumulate more and more power and massive sums of money, it also leaves the common worker with less freedom, less time for reflection, and less motivation. In similar fashion, Peter Kolchin warns in "Unfree Labor, American Slavery and Russian Serfdom" that for tenant farmers and serfs who worked for plantations or the state, when the owner classes claimed their laborers were lazy, stupid, and constitutionally incapable of getting things right on their own, such behavior was actually a conscious effort on the part of the poor and oppressed to get back at the oppressors. It was a form of "silent sabotage."(1) Does this help explain America's current economic and political malaise? To eliminate workism, sabotage and demonstrations by common laborers will be required. Such actions would aim at establishing occupation quotas for government positions, so that common laborers could finally and fully participate in the political decision making process. It would also be important to establish an economic system based on fair wages and profit sharing, and one in which self-worth is based on relationships and work itself, versus materialism and destructive and competitive economic practices. In case one questions such strategies, a recent bill (S-Miner Act) to improve miners' safety and to help rescue miners in emergencies was defeated in Congress in 2008, mainly due to large corporate donors like Massey Energy. The working class in the United States must organize and unite against the pundits of worksim, the preachers of ungodly gain, and the politicians who place profits before people. And the next time you sit down to eat your daily bread, be sure and thank an underpaid and devalued farmer and worker, for without their labor and production there would be no food, no chair, no table, and no house. Dallas Darling - darling@wn.com http://article.wn.com/view/2010/04/15/Until_Workism_Is_Confronted/
So a long article that sums up the simple sociological fact people with more money do and have for centuries looked down on people with less money. Got it.
While I agree that the labor of many has been minimized for decades. What I see as the big problem is the fact that this company received many substandard reviews and was allowed to operate even though their company did nothing to mitigate the hazzards. That's the real crime. And the one we should all be calling for an investigation and indictment of of. I want to see this company closed down and I want to see them pay real damages to the families involved. And the inspectors and civil bodies that blinked and allowed them to operate in this manner should also be held accountable. Sue them all I hope the families end up rich beyond measure. They deserve it. And do it before our corrupt congress passes what they are selling as "tort" reform. Tort reform equals no one but the rich have legal standing.
