Overtime (was Re: happy autoworkers)

[Carrol Cox]

"[N]o, people who work 80 hours a week have no life," but they can sure
become resentful (whether their 80 hours earns them $100,000 or nearer
$10,000 a year) of anyone who is paraded before them as not being
"responsible." This pervasive overwork (at varying rates of compensation) 
must be one of the material bases of succumbing to contempt/hatred/etc of
unruly teenagers, teenage mothers, convicts living in luxury (!),
pedophiles, arrogant women, blacks, drug dealers, immigrants, everyone who
can be prsented as not responsible as they are. I'm not praising sexual
abuse of children -- too many of my friends in DMDSG were damaged by it,
but I am noting that it is interesting that it is when hours of work are
increasing while for most income is just holding its own so many new
horrors ("individual" criminals) are discovered each month. 

Carrol

Maggie Coleman writes:


> 
> In a message dated 98-07-10 22:26:45 EDT, you write:
> 
> << Can anyone working 80 hours or more per week possibly be 'happy'? It looks
>  more like a sign of desperation--work as much as possible while you can
>  because jobs may disappear in the near future. How can we put the question
>  of free time back on the agenda of the labor movement?
>  
>  Yoshie >>
> 
> 1. no, people who work 80 hours a week have no life.
> 
> 2.  this 80 hour a week business becomes part of the trap of
> capitalism/consumerism.  Buy a house, have a couple of kids, insist your wife
> not work, and you end up with two jobs or one job with mega amounts of
> overtime, and you never get to see said house-wife-kids.  When the contract is
> up and you go out on strike, you are in deep shit.  This is why I think we all
> need to look beyond the $25-30-19-50 an hour and look at the actual
> exploitation taking place.  The dollar amounts indicate priviledge, the
> reality is less attractive.  maggie coleman mscoleman at aol.com
>