The Underbelly of the Beast

One of the subjects not discussed frequently, if at all, among polite company in regards to global capitalism is that, in order to keep the machine churning, itinerant workers and day laborers often are the backbone of the workforce. We see it in this country as the big time capitalists exploit migrant labor -- much of it from "illegal" immigrants -- to pick our crops, slaughter our meat, sew our clothes, wipe the butts of the well-to-do and keep palatial homes and lawns looking as pristine as ever.

A recent story highlights the woeful treatment of another class of contract labor -- in the nuclear reactors in Japan.

The Fukushima disaster has thrown up the first opportunity in decades to bring justice to thousands of unskilled workers who risk radioactive contamination to keep Japan’s nuclear power plants running.

"Fukushima has created public awareness on a section of nuclear workers castigated as ‘radiation- exposed people’ but forming the dark underbelly of an industry that depends on them," says Minoru Nasu, spokesperson for the Japan Day Labourers Union.

Nasu, a long-time labour activist, says that while nuclear industry relies heavily on unskilled workers it has left it to thuggish subcontractors to marshal them as daily wagers.

The common practice for the past several decades can best be described as "human auctioning," Nasu told IPS. Labourers gather at the crack of dawn at designated places such as public parks to be picked up by toughs who take them to the nuclear plants.

According to figures available with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Japan’s regulator, of the 80,0000-odd workers at Japan’s 18 commercial nuclear power plants, 80 percent are contract workers. At the Fukushima plant, 89 percent of the 10,000 workers in 2010 were on contract...

Let's face it. One way to describe the way capitalism works is to say that one group (class) of people puts up the capital for work to done, while a much larger group does the actual work. This schema wouldn't be so bad, if not for the other hallmark of capitalism: short-term profits at all costs.

These "costs" generally are not borne by the capitalist themselves. They are foisted upon the workers and/or the public. These costs can take the form of shoddy materials, lax oversight, and little concern for health and safety. So, while the capitalist sits in the study of his mansion counting his money with glee, his workers and the public at large must deal with the fallout from every corner he has cut.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if billionaires had to...

• ...fight wars on the front lines, war would become obsolete lickety split.
• ...pick their own crops, working conditions would improve exponentially.
• ...slaughter their own meat, safety concerns would become paramount.
• ...manufacture their own clothes, sweatshops would disappear in one day.
• ...mow their own lawns, those lawns would be far smaller than they are now.
• ...take care of their own children, they might not have so many.
• ...pay personally for their corporate misdeeds, they would endeavor to be far more careful.
• ...work in their own nuclear plants, I bet they would shut them down!

For me, the above list highlights the most serious problem with the capitalist system. It removes the desire or ability to see and treat others as you see and treat yourself. It smashes the Golden Rule into two constituent parts. The capitalist takes the gold and chucks the rule!