I’m not going to comment on PaperTiger’s assertions here. I just want to see the phrase “exploiting the masses” and all its derivatives banned from the English language. Not withstanding the fact that exploit is a NOUN (meaning a deed or act), NOT A VERB, I am just sick of the claims that all big business somehow exploits its workers in the name of Almighty Profit.
Heck, you can even make a claim that I exploit my boss! All I do is show up and give him 8 hours of my time, and in return, HE GIVES ME MONEY!!
It’s a symbiosis, people…in exchange for my time and talents, he gives me money; in exchange for money, I give him my time and talents. We USE each other to (hopefully) achieve some exploits in this world…
"Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony! You don’t wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you. If I went 'round saying I was an emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away! "
Ah, Monty Python, is there anything you can’t teach us? While there is some basis for a reasoned examination of the conflicting interests of management and labor in a capitalist society, when the phrase “exploit the masses” is used, it’s usually by some naive kid who has no practical experience of economics or work and who thinks the world owes him a living.
This quote just cries out for somebody to hand the author a copy of “The Wealth of Nations.” Without the profit motive, there would be no incentive to create newer, faster, cheaper products.
A useful discussion of “worker exploitation” could be had by comparing the average wage of a CEO and a laborer and the rationale for the discrepancy. One could also talk about the use of child labor in third world nations to make products sold in the US, the American company-owned maquiladoras on the US-Mexico border that manage to evade Federal safety regulations and taxes,and the wholesale thievery of companies like Enron that defraud their employees and go unpunished.
However, you’re right in that the left wing uses a lot of tired cliches. Of course, the right wing does exactly the same thing: “death tax,” “invisible hand,” etc. The right wing is just better at it.
So are you tired of the phrase, or do you disagree that it happens?
Well, I don’t see why it has to be one or the other.
Yes a lot of people are getting paid what they’re worth. A lot of hard workers aren’t, and (IMHO) a lot of slackers at the top aren’t either.
See who’s getting paid what. Take note that income is flowing against the gradient in this country:
instead of wealth flowing from where there is more of it to where there is less of it, it is welling up in a tighter and tighter spot, regardless of what you say about the increasing number of millionaires.
They say America is a great melting pot. The scum rises to the top and the guy on the bottom gets burned.
Chrome, who while not a leftist prole, thinks something should be done about the inequities in the economy.