Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate

Nearly all of the world’s people, who are overwhelmingly wage laborers and peasants, endure oppression. Of course, societies vary considerably in both the degree and openness of this oppression. Sweden is no doubt a less repressive nation than is the United States, and the latter is less coercive than is Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, the lot in life of most persons is to be subjected to the control, in one way or another, of a minority of their fellow human beings. Read More

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Playwright William Congreve said: “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” And so it does. Perhaps the Russian revolutionary Lenin had Congreve in mind when he said, according to Maxim Gorky: “I know the ‘Appassionata’ inside out and yet I am willing to listen to it every day. It is wonderful, ethereal music. On hearing it I proudly, maybe somewhat naively, think: See! people are able to produce such marvels!” [He then winked, laughed, and added sadly]: “I’m often unable to listen to music, it gets on my nerves, I would like to stroke my fellow beings and whisper sweet nothings in their ears for being able to produce such beautiful things in spite of the abominable hell they are living.” Read More

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Economists never say much about work.  They talk about the supply of and the demand for labor, but they have very little to say about the nature of the work we do.  Like most commentators, they seem to believe that modern economies will require ever more skilled work, which will be done in clean and quiet workplaces, by educated workers, who will share in decision-making with managerial facilitators.  We should disabuse ourselves of such notions.  In the world today, the overwhelming majority of workers do hard and dangerous labor, risking the health of their bodies and minds every minute they toil. Read More

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At the request of an organizer from the union, UNITE/HERE (see comment on last post), I am posting this interesting video. Hotel workers are notoriously overworked and underpaid. Karen and I have talked to many motel workers in our years of travel, and I can say from experience that this is the case. We both worked at the Lake Hotel in Yellowstone National Park, Karen as a restaurant host and I as a desk clerk. This was a most illuminating experience, described in Chapter Two of Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate. I applaud the hardworking organizers and wish them great success. Look at the video and then read an excerpt from the chapter on Yellowstone. Be sure to support the union efforts of hotel workers. Spread the word, send money, join picket lines, whatever you can. Read More

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The troubles in the U.S. automobile industry have taken an interesting turn. In return for considerable concessions to Chrysler and General Motors, the United Auto Workers may become a majority shareholder in Chrysler and a large stakeholder in General Motors. The federal government will also own a large fraction of the shares of the two corporations, making both of them a lot less capitalist in their ownership structure than would have been imaginable only a few months ago. Read More

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