This document discusses various topics related to work and labor, including: - The average American will work 90,000 hours in their lifetime doing jobs that are often useless or destructive. - Bertrand Russell's view that work falls into two categories: physical labor and management/oversight, with physical labor being unpleasant and underpaid. - Marx's vision of a communist society where people can choose different activities each day rather than specializing in one type of work. - Questions about how many hours a person should work depending on whether they like or hate their job. - Examples of unsafe working conditions and wage theft in various industries such as fast food, factories, and garment workers.

1. Work and Labor
10-10-2015

2. 3 Minute Write:
1)How many hours a week should a
person work who likes her job and
why?
2)How many hours a week should a
person work who hates his job and
why?
3)If you did not have to work, what
would you do?

3. Nasty little factoid:
The average American will work
90,000 hours in her/his lifetime.
Many by doing work that is pretty
useless; in fact doing work that is
even destructive to others and the
environment.
How will you get those hours back
when you retire? If you get to retire.

4. Bertrand Russell on Work
“what is work? Work is of
two kinds: first, altering
the position of matter at
or near the earth's
surface relatively to other
such matter; second,
telling other people to do
so. The first one is
unpleasant and ill paid;
the second is pleasant
and highly paid.”

5. In communist society, where
nobody has one exclusive sphere
of activity but each can become
accomplished in any branch he
wishes … it possible for me to do
one thing today and another
tomorrow, to hunt in the morning,
fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in
the evening, criticise after dinner,
just as I have a mind, without ever
becoming hunter, fisherman,
herdsman or critic.
Marx, German Ideology (1845)

6. But how many hours do we really need to work?

7. Got the degree. Now what?

9. A few charts that ought to motivate you a bit

19. Corporations and Cheap Labor
It is the case that it is your taxes that are
making up for the low wages in the
service industry.
Corporations like McDonalds and Wal-
Mart have been paying so low that their
employees are on government subsidies
paid for by your taxes.

21. Stephen Colbert on the
Minimum Wage
http://on.cc.com/1mhoRJm

22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slTF_XXoKAQ

25. Fast Food
Strike
of 2014

27. Factory Worker Protest in Italy
2014

28. Wage Theft

29. Wage Theft

30. Wage Theft

31. Safety, who do you trust?

33. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian
immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three; the
oldest victim was 48, the youngest were two fourteen-
year-old girls.
Wikipedia

35. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City
on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial
disaster in the history of the city of New York and
resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an
industrial accident in U.S. history
Wikipedia

37. Because the managers had locked the doors to the
stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to
prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks – many of
the workers who could not escape the burning.
Wikipedia

44. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory
safety standards and helped spur the growth of the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which
fought for better working conditions for sweatshop
workers.
Wikipedia

46. While the fire was claimed an anomaly, just two months
later there was another fire with the same issue of
locked doors.

54. Two days after Saturday's fire at a Bangladeshi garment factory that killed at least 112
people, Walmart was neither confirming nor denying that the factory was one of its
contractors, saying that it just wasn't sure whether Tazreen Fashions, Ltd. made
Walmart clothes. But pictures taken after the fire showing clothes from Walmart's
Faded Glory label appear to settle that question.
W
A
L
M
A
R
T

55. So, it can’t happen
again, can it?

56. Second garment factory fire breaks
out in Bangladesh 2 days after
inferno kills 112 RT published time: November 26, 2012

57. Bangladeshi
firefighters climb a
ladder as they try
and control a fire
that broke out at a
garment factory
on the outskirts of
Dhaka on
November 26,
2012 (AFP Photo
/ Str)
RT published time: November 26,
2012

59. Additions Follow

60. WAGE THEFT!
Have you heard of it?

61. Wage theft is widespread and
pervasive across all types of
companies. Various surveys
have found that:
From Bobo, Kim (2008-12-09). Wage Theft in
America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are
Not Getting Paid - And What We Can Do About It
(Kindle Locations 235-244). New Press. Kindle
Edition.

62. Wage Theft
62McDonalds

63. FBI on Wage Theft
63

64. Wage Theft
64

65. Wage Theft
65

67. Guadalupe Salazar, a McDonald’s
cashier who says her paychecks were
missing overtime wages.
Credit Peter DaSilva for The New York Times 2014

68. “Sometimes I’d work 60,
even 90 days in a row,” said
Mr. Rangel, a soft-spoken
immigrant from Mexico.
“They never paid overtime.”

69. [A Riverside County] lawsuit is part of a
flood of recent cases — brought in
California and across the nation — that
accuse employers of violating minimum
wage and overtime laws, erasing work
hours and wrongfully taking employees’
tips. Worker advocates call these
practices “wage theft,” insisting it has
become far too prevalent. LA Times, 5/5/15
WAGE THEFT REALLY IS
AGAINST THE LAW

70. Check your
paycheck!

71. •60 percent of nursing homes stole workers’ wages.
•89 percent of non-monitored garment factories in Los
Angeles
•67 percent of non-monitored garment factories in New
York City stole workers’ wage.
•25 percent of tomato producers
•35 percent of lettuce producers
•51 percent of cucumber producers
•58 percent of onion producers,
•62 percent of garlic producers hiring farm workers
stole workers’ wages
•78 percent of restaurants in New Orleans stole
workers’ wages.
•Almost half of day laborers, who tend to focus on
construction work, have had their wages stolen
•100 percent of poultry plants steal workers’ wages.
Bobo, Kim 2008

72. Wage Theft
The Economic Policy Foundation, a
business-funded think tank, estimated
that companies annually steal $19 billion
in unpaid overtime.
72

74. Hours needed in Min Wage to
pay rent

75. Hourly Wage Needed to Pay
Rent

76. #

77. QUESTION:
Which of the following best defines the term
globalization?
a) The process of removing manufacturing and
industrial sites from foreign countries and returning
them to the United States.
b) When products are assembled over the course of
several international transactions.
c) Long periods of recession followed by sharp
economic upturn worldwide.
d) The ability of corporations to operate with minimal
or no responsibilities to nations and their social
structures

78. QUESTION:
By 2009, America had suffered several
consecutive quarters of economic
decline. America was in the midst of a:
a) Capital rebuttal
b) Recession
c) Depression
d) Economic sling-shot recovery

79. QUESTION:
Jin is a conflict theorist sociologist. Which of the
following statements about Occupy Wall Street would
most align with Jin’s sociological perspective?
a) Occupy Wall Street is positive; our capitalist economy is
only making social inequality grow larger.
b) Occupy Wall Street is a waste of time; our capitalistic
economy is keeping our nation healthy, and is designed
for maximum efficiency.
c) Occupy Wall Street is a threat; with so many angry
people gathered in one place, horrible violence will
surely break out.
d) Occupy Wall Street is dangerous; large crowds in these
environments heighten the risk for sexual abuse and
gender discrimination.

80. QUESTION:
The term mercantilism can best be defined as:
a) When children tend to enter the same or similar
occupation as their parents.
b) An economic policy based on national policies of
accumulating silver and gold by controlling markets with
colonies and other countries through taxes and customs
charges.
c) An economic system in which there is government
ownership (often referred to as “state run”) of goods and
their production, with an impetus to share work and
wealth equally among the members of a society.
d) An economic system in which there is private ownership
(as opposed to state ownership) and where there is an
impetus to produce profit, and thereby wealth.

81. QUESTION:
A primary reason for the United State's reluctance to
support social welfare programs, and instead foster
competition and the accumulation of personal wealth
is _____________.
a) mostly influenced by geography, not ideology
b) an emphasis upon an ideology of individualism
c) the United States was founded mostly by the
English.
d) the United Sates quickly moved away from
agriculture to industry

82. QUESTION:
The theory of "The Theft of the
Commons”___________.
a) purports that there are no cultural differences in the
desire for the acquisition of unlimited wealth.
b) states that given a shared resource, one or more
will attempt to increase their share at the expense
of the others
c) claims that people in general share a common
interest in the good of the group
d) has been proven constantly through social-
psychological experiments.

83. QUESTION:
A graduated income tax is deigned to _____.
a) make those in the higher income brackets
pay a higher percentage of revenue to
society than lower income groups.
b) gradually reduce the amount of taxes as a
person increases her/his income
increases
c) stimulate competition and increase the
gross domestic product (GDP)
d) encourage international trade and global
free markets

84. QUESTION:
Repeated studies of Denmark and other "social
democracies" consistently result in_________.
a) evidence that such a social system creates
greater poverty and crime
b) a tendency to build a sense of militarism
among the population
c) a general sense of fairness and security for
the overall population
d) large numbers of people emigrating to other
countries

85. QUESTION:
The economic crash of 2008 and its global
consequences was due primarily to _____________.
a) a pattern of banks and investors to direct capital
away from domestic manufacturing to cheap foreign
markets
b) extremely high risk investments by banks since
deregulation in the 1990s
c) the influence of large financial institutions on
congressional leaders and the executive
government
d) Correct Answer all of the above

86. QUESTION:
The average American, if working full time,
from the age of 21 to 65, will have
worked on average ________ hours.
(Hint: over ten years.)
a) 200,000
b) 90,000
c) 30,000
d) 12,000

87. QUESTION:
Keshawn used to work for an IT company
in Baltimore, but lost his job when his
company decided to use workers in New
Delhi instead. This is an example of:
a) Polarization
b) Automation
c) Correct Answer Outsourcing
d) The technology gap

88. FINIS