I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

Last night, I had a good discussion with a Mindsay blogger, my friend Jim Schweizer. We talked of a good many subjects, as we often do, arriving at always on our beloved shared topic of world events and American politics in particular. Jim and I tend to see some things through different lenses, but overall, we spend a great deal of time worrying about the state of tihngs.

But perhaps it is time to do more than chew over situations, determine their implications, and plan escape routes should the US actually turn into the regime Hollywood has dreamed up in sci-fi films. You know, those images don't just float out in the ether - they are quite real, just waiting to be realized.

At any rate, I have an observation to offer those who think doing away with overtime is no big deal, per the Bush administration. Perhaps you have already been elevated to white collar status, where 50-60 hour weeks are the standard. Around the turn of the last century, laborers who were dying out their lives (as opposed to living them) working ridiculous hours for slave wages in the mills began to strike, chanting the exhortation: "8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for what we will!" They won a horrifically bloody strike to let them....LET THEM...work a mere 8 hour day instead of the 12-14 required by the industry barons in those days.

People died so that Americans could perhaps have a decent life and be paid fair wages for an 8 hour day.

Little by little, that is being eroded by a government intent on giving business the upper hand. What clout do you think the average guy has against his employer, Corporate America? Think you can ask for more time off, less hours? I worked for communications company, that shall remain nameless, who fired a top producing sales director because he asked to work less than 80 hours per week so he could spend time with his newborn and wife.

Sensing he was less committed to the company now, they fired him.

FIRED HIM.

See you can do that to white collar people. Don't have to satisfy union rules about wrongful termination and all that rot.

I was reprimanded by that same company for not answering an email at 11:00 PM. Apparently, since my IM id was up, someone thought I was available to work, and put forth a pressing question. Who cares when I am supposed to sleep, eh? The corporation must come first.

I recently accepted a part time job at a well known corporation. What's their definition of part-time? You know...up to 40 hours per week.

My stories are merely, sad to say, typical. This is the new landscape of the American corporation.

While you chew on that, think on this as well. Europe's economic engine, Germany, treats its employees, white collar and hourly, rather differently than we do. They get up to 6 weeks off per year.

6 WEEKS!

PAID!

How many Americans get 6 weeks PAID time off per year? This is so the German worker, who puts in an average of 36 hours per week, by the way, can recharge and be effective in his employment.

Again let me ask: who do you think really cares about the welfare of the American worker?

In America historically, the great promise was that by letting corporations tend to what they know best, i.e., business, the economy would take care of itself and corporations would take care of their workers.

Explain to me again, please, how making you work longer hours for the same pay and stripping you of healthcare benefits is taking better care of you.

I'm having a little trouble getting it.

To close this little meditation on labor, let's look at that great innovation thanks to technology - the ability of the corporate worker to enrich their life by "working at home". Have you seen the ads for the in-home wireless network? It shows a woman and child, sitting on a couch, intently focused on the television, probably playing Nintendo. The husband is sitting nearby on the couch, furiously typing away at his laptop, presumably working from home while enjoying some "quality family time" because, see, he is wirelessly connected now, enabling him to work ever more hours while being physically present (only) in this family scene.

Welcome to the new vision of American family life, thanks to your telecom and high tech corporations, and your government who could care less if you have any quality of life whatsoever. Everyone is under the delusion that things are somehow 'better' now that we have all this technology. No one has to live in the mills anymore. Isn't this progress?

Well, perhaps they don't have to do any more heavy lifting and breathe black fumes. But the corporation clearly owns the soul of the average American worker. Remember the song? I sold my soul...to the company store....

Is this the promise of America? Of Laissez Faire capitalism? Of economic freedom?

Then why does it so frighteningly resemble economic enslavement?

Perhaps a new picture needs to emerge...one that doesn't have us enslaved because we have to have the SUV, the Nintendo, the house in the burbs, the latest Donna Karan....see how this works? You work so you can buy. You work for people who want you to buy. As long as you buy, you will need to work, and the more you work the more you can buy. Of course, the more you can buy, the more you will have to work, because of that marvelous consumption invention of credit. Thankfully in this country, you cannot be jailed for debt. But in struggling to keep your head above water, you are effectively jailed by your consumption desires. Which are propelled by the same companies that you work for...

"I sold my soul to the company store...."

And here's the bad news....they own you. So perhaps we should spend some time thinking about this "American Consumption Dream" and what it really means when your family life will soon consist of you wirelessly anchored to your job wherever you go, always available, always on call, and only partially present for your family. "Scuse me son, I want to help you on your homework, but I gotta' take this cell call..." Maybe we should think about what it means that we won't get overtime, but instead will be co-opted into white collar jobs no matter what we do. Think about it. Janitors are going to becomes "cleaning engineers". Factory workers will become "production associates". Doesn't this sound good? And all so you can be pegged at a salary that will barely meet your needs while your hours increase. And you daren't quit, for how will you possibly afford all those goodies you see nightly on the TV? That promise you THIS time, this product will give you the happiness you so desperately seek? If only you were rid of bad breath, erectile dysfunction, fat, and bad cell phones, if only you had a corvette/SUV/Mercedes/Lexus/insert brand name here, then you would have a happy life....the life you so deserve.

"I sold my soul to the company store...."

Wake up. Take a good long look at consumerism and capitalism. See it as it is, not as it is sold to you.

Then tell me what you think....