"What our economy runs on is free people pursuing their dreams. That's what makes America work." Like if you agree.
I agree. Who could disagree with this broad generalization? Of course free enterprise is the engine that drives the American economy. Nobody really questions that. But is it really that simple? I heard a clip from Missouri U.S. Senate hopeful Todd Akin the other day. He opposes the minimum wage because employers and workers should have the freedom to work out their relationships unimpeded by government interference. I'm sure that some Republican could then extend that argument to support doing away with the 40-hour-week, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, OSHA safety requirements, the National Labor Relations Act, and a lot of other protections that were imposed on employers to balance out the complete lack of equality in the employment bargaining process between employers and workers, based on a long historical record of employers trying to exploit their workers. Some legislator in Missouri last year wanted to eliminate child labor laws. So every little twelve-year-old in Missouri should be free to decide for himself whether he wants to continue on with 6th grade or manfully stride out into the workplace to begin his career. Ah, Freedom! You will just take that job advertisement, go in to the company, hat in hand, and work out all the terms of your new job with your new boss. Simple as that!
My fellow Americans, we tried the Republicans' laissez- faire capitalism in what is now not-so-fondly referred to as the Gilded Age or the Age of the Robber Barons. That age culminated in the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, after which Congress and the Franklin Roosevelt Administration put in the safeguards for employees mentioned above.
Free people pursuing their dreams. What if your dream is to have a job in which you can earn a living wage? The Republicans look at everything from the employer's point of view. His dream may be to make as much money as he possibly can as fast as he possibly can, the welfare of his workers--and customers--notwithstanding.
The truth is that pure, unadorned laissez-faire capitalism did not work in America. And will not work. Absent government oversight and at least some government hand in the employer-employee relationship, too many employers will succumb to pure greed and eagerly exploit their workers--without remorse. Now, for certain, the government can occasionally go too far in this regard and sometimes adjustments have to be made to even things out. There is no question that the relationship between government and employers needs to be fine tuned from time to time to make sure that the system is fair to both sides. But we shouldn't just take a meat axe to the established order of things just to suit some theoretical idea of ''Capitalism,"capital C, or the avoidance of anything appearing to resemble "Socialism." The truth is that our society and our economy is a generally healthy blend of Capitalism and Socialism and has been for some time. The blending process was doing just fine until the radical Right got hold of the car keys.
The Republican Party has always stood for the rights of capital. The Democratic Party has traditionally represented the interests of labor. If you make your living from your labor and you perennially vote Republican, you shouldn't be surprised if inroads continue to be made in your employment situation and in your pocketbook.
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