Workers' Rights Are About Dignity As Much As Wages

From AlterNet, an essay by Nickel and Dimed author Barbara Ehrenreich:

Something similar goes on in the case of the laid off and unemployed, thanks to the prevailing Calvinist form of Protestantism, according to which productivity and employment are the source of one's identity as well as one's income. Not working? Then what are you? And to put the Calvinist message in crude theological terms: Go to hell.

In case anyone fails to feel their full measure of shame over unemployment, there is an entire shame industry to whip them into shape: the career coaches, self-help books, motivational speakers, and business gurus who preach that whatever happens to you must be a result of your own attitude. Laid-off and coming up empty on your job search? You must be too negative, and hence attracting negative circumstances into your life. To paraphrase one career coach I encountered during my research for Bait and Switch: We're not here to talk about the economy or the market; we're here to talk about you.

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Yeah, well, obviously it's not all thanks to Protestantism, although its pre-existing strain infecting our culture made fertile ground for what's really going on: all these motivational speakers and career coaches are just one part of a massive propaganda campaign to make individual economic circumstances all about you, the individual, rather than about the overall economic context. That is, how many times have you heard someone say that labor unions were once a very good thing, but that their time has passed? That's the conventional wisdom shared by countless journalists, politicians, and pundits, which dominates the US political discourse. The corporate news media simply don't cover labor issues, at least, not in the way they cover business issues--one half of the equation is simply off the table. Add to all that the fact that the labor movement and the importance of collective bargaining are always taught in public schools in the most boring ways possible. I vaguely remember covering labor in the US history class I took when I was a junior in high school; I remember very clearly, however, all the war stuff, and what badasses Americans are when they shoot foreigners.

If you're out of work, or suffering in a low-paying, no-benefit job you hate, there's a very good chance it isn't your fault: most likely, you're a pawn caught up in a power game waged by people who don't give a rat's ass whether you live or die. I mean, if you're a lazy fuck who just resents having to work, well, go to hell; I'm not talking about you. But if you're honestly trying, trust me, you're getting fucked over, and it's not your fault if you feel like you're failing.

And voting for Democrats probably isn't going to do much to help you.

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