Big Business Employers Are the Modern-Day Slave Owners, Using Wage-Slavery Instead of the Old-Fashioned Kind

Read here how work is done in an egalitarian society

Newsweek asks us to debate, “How exactly should workers be exploited paid by employers?”

This Newsweek article is about ‘gig workers,’ e.g., about the 73.3 million U.S. workers who are Uber or Lyft drivers, or certain construction workers, or certain janitors and office cleaners, or who are in general a worker who could arguably be thought of as a self-employed contractor rather than as an employee. As the article discusses, the Biden Labor Department proposes to make a rule change that will classify more such workers as employees, not self-employed, than previously. This is controversial, explains Newsweek, because this change would seem to benefit the gig-now-employees while harming the employers because the employers would be legally required to provide pay and benefits to employees that they were not required to provide to gig workers. (The article ends with a hard-to-follow argument that actually the new Labor Department rule would also benefit employers.) Newsweek also points out that the big labor unions support the new rule change because it would create more union members, and that the Unions are major supporters of the Democratic Party.

Newsweek paints the question of whether the proposed rule change is a good or bad idea as a real head-scratcher even if one’s sympathy is entirely for the workers. It does this by telling its readers that the proposed rule change may be a "job killer," making it harder for the "regular person trying to find work" (since, one supposes, an employer who was eager to hire a gig worker with low pay and no benefits would not be eager to hire that same worker if it required providing them with higher pay and benefits.)

The question posed by this Newsweek article is essentially (if we use honest wording), “How exactly should workers be exploited in our wonderful capitalist society in which it may be necessary for many workers to suffer low pay and no benefits in order to have any income at all?”

Source here. It’s only gotten worse since then!

Now let’s consider how work would be done in an egalitarian society

As I’ve written about in some detail here, very briefly workers in an egalitarian society who contribute reasonably according to ability have the right to take for free from the economy what they need or reasonably desire with scarce things equitably rationed according to need.

Who determines if a worker is contributing reasonably according to ability?

Whether or not a person (or economic enterprise, as discussed below) is contributing reasonably according to ability and is taking only what is needed or reasonably desired, and how exactly scarce things are equitably rationed, are questions that are answered by the Local Assembly of Egalitarians (read about it here) for the local community in which the worker lives or works (or the economic enterprise operates.)

Who are “egalitarians”? Egalitarians are those people who have the egalitarian values of no-rich-and-no-poor equality and mutual aid and fairness [discussed here], regardless of whether they call themselves an egalitarian or have even heard of that word; in most communities the vast majority of people are egalitarians.

Who has a right to be a member of the Local Assembly of Egalitarians? All egalitarians in the local community who believe that egalitarians have the right to rule, and only they, have the right to participate as equals in local assembly meetings and democratically determine laws and policies, how they will be enforced, and who will be delegated related authority.

How is work done in an egalitarian society?

First, a little background. In an egalitarian society there is a sharing economy. Those who contribute reasonably according to ability thereby obtain good standing membership in the sharing economy, which means they have the right to take for free from the economy what they need or reasonably desire with scarce things equitably rationed according to need. A hog—i.e., a person who (or an economic enterprise that) takes MORE than what they need or reasonably desire—however, loses their good standing status. If this happens, then the worker (or workers in the economic enterprise) can only barter for things (there is no money in an egalitarian society), which is an undesirable situation to be in in the eyes of most people.

While the Local Assembly of Egalitarians may determine the good standing status of an individual worker, typically it does not do so. Rather, it determines the good standing status of economic enterprises, meaning anything from a guild of hot dog sidewalk vendors or restaurant-operators to a large industrial, educational, medical, entertainment or sports, etc. organization. The Local Assembly of Egalitarians judges whether or not the economic enterprise, as a whole, is contributing reasonably according to ability and taking from the economy only what it needs or reasonably desires (sort of like how hospitals and schools today obtain or do not obtain certification.) If so, then that economic enterprise is granted good standing membership in the sharing economy and all of the residents of the given local community who work in that economic enterprise are automatically also granted good standing unless the Local Assembly of Egalitarians denies it to a specific individual for some reason such as their being a hog or a law-breaker.

In order for an economic enterprise to maintain its status of good standing in the sharing economy, it needs to maintain a good reputation for contributing reasonably according to ability and taking only according to need or reasonable desires. This means that the workers in an economic enterprise (who are all equals in democratically making decisions relating to that enterprise, including about who can be a member of it) have a strong motive to protect the enterprise’s good reputation. Specifically, the workers have a strong motive to tell any worker in the enterprise who is putting its good reputation in jeopardy (by doing bad work or less work than is reasonable) to shape up, or else be denied membership in the economic enterprise.

In such a society, if some people have a new idea about how they would like to contribute reasonably according to ability (analogous to how people recently started driving their own car for strangers in the Uber/Lyft mode), in other words if some person or people have an entrepreneurial project they’d like to start, all they have to do is pitch the idea to their Local Assembly of Egalitarians. If the Local Assembly of Egalitarians decides that it’s a good idea, then it gives a green light to the entrepreneurs to create the appropriate economic enterprise and it will have good standing in the sharing economy, meaning that the workers in it will be able to take for free from the economy what they need or reasonably desire and the economic enterprise will likewise be able to take for free what it reasonably needs to operate.

In such a society, nobody who is willing to work reasonably according to ability (‘work’ includes going to school, caring for children, etc., and those who are children or past retirement are considered to be working reasonably by doing zero) will be unable to do so, and will thus be able to take for free what he/she needs or reasonably desires. Also, there will be no rich and no poor. And there will be genuine democracy.

No wonder Newsweek doesn’t mention the egalitarian way to solve the head-scratching problem it asks its readers to ponder!

Here’s how YOU can help hasten the day when we have an egalitarian society instead of our wage-slavery one.