Societies
where large-scale exploitation occurs usually has some factors in
common. I have noticed that when there are three factors especially.
One, a large number of people that are unemployed and desperate for a
job. Two, when there is a demand for huge amounts of cheap labor and
three, when the poor and desperate population got no or close to no
education. If you have all these factors in the same place at the
same time you are most likely to find large-scale exploitation of
humans there too.
When
people are unemployed and their family is starving, they are of
course desperate for a job, any job. They will take almost any
employment, no matter what the salary is, because making a little
money is better than making non. If the ones hiring workers knows
this, that there are a surplus of workers and that they are desperate
enough to settle for virtually any wage, the employers can start to
exploit the workers and make huge profits for themselves. The labor
force becomes expandable to factories. If they fire one of their
workers there is another laborer there to take the dismissed person's
place. When the workers know that they are seen as expendable they
will agree to almost anything in order not to lose their job. The
salary, work assignments, work conditions and work hours are shaped
after the employers wishes and needs without no thought what so ever
of the needs and wants of the laborer. Most workers even accept
abuse. In places where the population has increased rapidly during a
relatively short period of time, there is often a surplus of workers
in need of an employment, and a shortage of jobs.
In
history, almost every time when there has been a huge project that
has required a large amount laborers, there has been exploitation of
humans involved. Everything from the pyramids and the Great Wall of
China to today's cloth- and shoe-production has used and exploited
humans. I think that the cheap labor starts out as a requirement to
be able to do the project at all. Then when the project leaders has a
functioning system, the costs of starting up has been payed and the
project has started to give a winning, and they could pay their
workers a decant amount in wage, the necessity to pay their laborers
less is no more a necessity, but a greedy act. They want the money
for themselves. But it is not the money itself that is desirable, it
is the power that comes with it. Money is nothing in itself. It is
treasured because we use money as a measurement of power. If you were
on a deserted island and had a million dollar in cash, it would not
be worth more to you then the material of which it was made. So,
power is the thing that people want. That is why employers do not pay
their workers more even though they might have the money to spare.
The employers do not want to give the workers more money, because
giving them more money means giving them more power. The employers do
not want their employees to have that. The more power the laborers
get the less the employers have and the reverse, and unless someone
or something empower the workers to seize the power for themselves
they will not get any higher in the hierarchy. Some believe that to
suppress others raises you above them.
When
the exploited workers do not have an education, they also have no
idea of their own rights. They do not know of anything better. How
are these laborers to be aware of that they have the right to a
certain amount of money, to breaks and to some standards of working
conditions? Most important, how are they to effect the injustices
that they experience, when they have never heard about such a thing
as a labor unions? It is hard to hope and work for a change when you
have no idea that things can be different and that they are in other
places. Another thing is that I think many exploited workers do not
think that they deserve a change. They might be so deluded that they
think that they deserve the treatment received. These workers often
come from a background of poverty. It cannot be easy to build up a
strong sense of self esteem, when everything around tells you that
you are on the lowest step in the ladder of society. When they get a
job they are told that they should be grateful, since a lot of other
people do not have the same opportunity. Here there must be some
conflicting feelings and a chance for additional self doubt. People
and the society are saying to you to be appreciative for the
employment, but who in the world could always stay grateful and happy
about a job that means hard labor, low wage and most likely abuse
from your supervisors. If you are not able to always feel grateful,
you must feel like an unappreciative person, like a bad person.
Adding further to your sense of worthlessness, is your supervisor
that comes around while your working and tell you how bad you are at
what you are doing. It feels like a lot of people think that “why
do not these exploited humans just take action and fight for their
right? If everyone did it they would be rid of this problem”. Well,
it is not that simple. This environment that exploitation exist in
is, like I have mentioned, is ideal for exploitation. It is not just
the fact that the surplus of workers give the employers the
opportunity to exploit them, but also that the environment that the
laborers live and work in, continuously breaks down their confidence
and self esteem. It is not likely that you will fight for something
that you do not think you deserve.
We
who consume the products made by these exploited people do not often
care enough to make a change in the production. I think that even
though a lot of western people know what is going on in the bottom of
the production line, we have hard to really understand. It is
difficult relating to people who live on the other side of the world.
The problem is so far away and therefore we can easily close or eyes
and pretend that it is not there. Our mind is good at protecting
itself from things that we find uncomfortable and hard. It suppresses
the problem with the suffering people on the other side of the world,
who are laboring hard so we can buy cheap clothes. It becomes someone
else's issue. Out of sight and out of mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment