"Higher Consideration" and Labor's Catch-22

"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." --Abraham Lincoln

On a business' balance sheet--whether it be a recently bailed out bank or a coffee shop--labor is a liability. We have to get paid. As many have experienced, in bust-times, companies try to reduce their liabilities and we end up on the unemployment line. Executives/bosses give labor "high consideration," but only as one might give high consideration to treating their cancer.

We are on the unemployment line. Meanwhile, "experts" say that increased spending will get us out of the economic crisis. We can get out of this mess if we buy a TV with our benefit check! In this way, we are given "high consideration" as a comedian might consider the best punchline for his new routine.

Back to the balance sheet. In the tug-of-war to keep balance between assets and liabilities, labor will lose. We are among the biggest liabilities, and we are seen as flexible--if not altogether expendable. Instead of joining the unemployment line we might agree to a few unpaid days off--especially in a time like this. That is "high consideration" in the way one might consider paying the kidnapper's demanded ransom.

It can seem as if we have no good options. In this recession we either have a job we are afraid of losing or we have lost the job already and are anxious about being able to find a new one while also stressing about how to afford the basics of life. It is a catch-22.

How are we to be considered differently? Remember this: "Capital is only the fruit of labor, could never have existed if labor had not first existed." Labor makes the things we are asked to spend our money on (the sales of which make a few people richer while people who made them enjoy an unpaid day off or wait in line). If capital is the fruit of labor and if capital would not exist with out us, don't we deserve respectful, "high consideration" as a powerful group?

Part of being able to meet goals and achieve is the ability to take responsibility for actions. A person must believe that they have some control over what happens to them. It is called "internal locus of control." It is not that "my mom/teacher/boss made me do it" or that "it was bad luck that I failed." A choice was made and actions taken.

If labor is responsible for capital, it is partly responsible for capitalism. We enable the system in order to survive. We struggle to gain that internal locus of control as a group--that power to break out of the catch-22 we are getting pushed into. In our struggles against the system and with ourselves as we try to gain a collective consciousness, a good mantra is this: "Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."