Reading Notes

The so-called elite is talking of the Alien Contract Labour Bill that Would end the importation of cheap labour from Europe to work in mills and factories and undermine the unions and drive wages down, "We all know if alien labour is halted American labour will become arrogant and overweening and demand impossible wages and conditions, and that will be the end of the American progress and wealth. You will not be able to compete in foreign markets."("Captain and the Kings" by Taylor Caldwell). Since this is the nineteenth century when workers toiled for fourteen hours a day for literally starvation wages, one wonders exactly what those 'impossible wages and conditions would be. The speaker is right, though, when he points out that anyone paying wages above the rest will not be able to compete. Capitalism is always forced to create a race to the bottom. The thing is, it is no different today as, unless wages in the northern hemisphere continue to droop dramatically, more and more jobs will go south. John Ayers.