I saw this on Ezra Klein’s blog who saw it on Political Wire.
Whoever edited the video characterizes the factory work as slave labor, but that is inaccurate. Still, it’s certainly a pretty good illustration of what labor conditions are like for people unable to form a union to collectively bargain for better wages/hours/maybe only double decker bunkbeds instead of triple decker?
More after the thingy.
Mitt thinks the moral of the story is that 95% of your life is settled if you are born in America. The comments at Political Wire help explain why.
I was a union member for almost 35 years serving as an office and newsletter editor for nearly my complete working life. I walked picket lines during two lengthy strikes, was threatened by anonymous voices on the phone and assaulted in a union hall parking lot. I stayed with it because without unions and people willing to go to the mat for them, all workers will suffer. I did it so my children would have a better life and not have to fight for the right to earn a living and to be able to support their families. Through the union wages on job, I was able to help them through college to advanced degrees. They are all well established professionals but have never forgotten their roots and honor picket lines whenever possible. One factor in this mix we never hear about is that if workers are paid sub-standard wages, their children will have little or no chance at higher education and that is what the oligarchy in this country want, a workforce of uneducated people with only the skills to enable them to work at low wage jobs and be satisfied. The myth of the “American Dream” and the yearning for a past that existed only in the minds of the propagandists of the day is what drives that oligarchy.
Another writes:
Yeah, Mitt–life is like this here because of ORGANIZED LABOR. Which they don’t allow in China. What you saw in China is quite a lot like what we used to have here.
And don’t even try to pretend you wouldn’t love to be able to impose that on workers in this country.
Isn’t the notion that 95% of your life is settled by the circumstances of your birth a particularly progressive idea? I thought the moral of Mitt’s life was supposed to be that he earned all his money on his own, after striking out from Michigan and living on nothing but the stock he occasionally had to sell in order to claw his way from the top to the higher top. If Mitt isn’t careful, his fellow conservatives might become uneasy having to think about the fact that their comfortable lives aren’t necessarily all based on their hard work and merit.
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting video, and was surprised that it wasn't posted here yet, but maybe I just missed it.
crossposted at somedisagree.com