THE WAGE SLAVES

truthNproof…“indisputable evidence is our weapon; unity is our power” THE WAGE SLAVES   Minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly wage that one receives in exchange for the work or services performed.   CEO compensation in the US has outpaced corporate profits, economic growth and the average compensation of all workers between 1980 and 2004. As a general rule, the larger the corporation the larger the CEO compensation package.  The pay for the five top earning executives at each of the largest 1500 American companies for the ten years from 1994-2004 is estimated at approximately $500 billion.    In 2010, 85.1 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies received an annual bonus payout. The median bonus was $2.15 million. Bonuses may be used to reward performance or as a kind of deferred compensation to discourage executives from quitting. They are often part of both short and long term compensation, and more often part of a plan or formula than simply discretionary.   A study by the executive compensation analysis firm Equilar Inc. for the New York Times found that the median pay package for the top 200 chief executives at public companies with at least $1 billion in revenue in 2012 was $15.1 million an increase of 16 percent from 2011.   In 2012, the highest paid CEO in the US was Lawrence J. Ellison of Oracle with $96.2 million. That year the top 200 executives earned a total of $3 billion in compensation. The median cash compensation was $5.3 million, the median stock and option grants were $9 million.  Wage slavery is a situation where a person works for low wages, living check to check in a cycle of working to pay bills not being able to progress. It is an analogy between slavery and wage labor. The term wage slavery has been used to criticize economic exploitation and social stratification.   In the United States, the most notorious Black Codes were laws passed after the Civil War. These laws had the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans freedoms, and compelling them to work in a labor economy based on low wages. To stop progress and maneuver them into other forms of slavery. Many laws passed discriminated systematically against African Americans. The Black Codes are  systematic strategies of white supremacy to enslave blacks and give privilege to whites.   The defining feature of the Black Codes was vagrancy law which allowed local authorities to arrest the people and commit them to involuntary labor. Vagrancy laws were vague and covered a wide range of activities and crimes associated with vagrants, such as loitering, prostitution, drunkenness, and associating with known criminals.   A vagrant or a vagabond is a person, often in poverty, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular employment or income. Other synonyms include "tramp," "hobo," and "drifter". A vagrant could be described as being "a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging", vagrancy is the condition of such persons. Both "vagrant" and "vagabond" ultimately derive from Latin word vagus "wander." The term "vagabond" is derived from Latin vagabundus. In middle english, "vagabond" originally denoted a criminal.   Under the vagrancy laws, police arrested people who were suspected of crime, but who had not committed a crime. Eventually, punishments were changed to a fine, or several months in jail. Homeless unemployed black Americans were arrested and fined as vagrants. Usually, the person could not afford the fine, and so was sent to county labor or hired out to a private employer.    85% of blacks were living below the poverty line during the late 1800s. Automatically placed at the bottom of the social ladder, blacks were denied virtually all rights afforded to whites.  Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.  Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live. The World Bank estimated 1.29 billion people were living in absolute poverty in 2008. Of these, about 400 million people in absolute poverty lived in India and 173 million people in China. In terms of percentage of regional populations, sub-Saharan Africa at 47% had the highest incidence rate of absolute poverty in 2008. Between 1990 and 2010, about 663 million people moved above the absolute poverty level. Still, extreme poverty is a global challenge; it is observed in all parts of the world, including developed economies. UNICEF estimates half the worlds children (or 1.1 billion) live in poverty.  Fundamentally, poverty is the inability of getting choices and opportunities, a lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. Not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments.   In 1968, Dr. King and the SCLC organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. King traveled the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol until Congress created an "economic bill of rights" for poor Americans. The campaign culminated in a march on Washington, D.C., demanding economic aid to the poorest communities of the United States.   Dr. King called on the government to invest in rebuilding America's cities. He felt that Congress had shown "hostility to the poor" by spending "military funds with alacrity and generosity." He contrasted this with the situation faced by poor Americans, claiming that Congress had merely provided "poverty funds with miserliness." His vision was for change that was more revolutionary than mere reform: he cited systematic flaws of "racism, poverty, militarism and materialism", and argued that "reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced."  The Poor People's Campaign was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the US. The Campaign demanded economic and human rights for poor Americans of diverse background.    The Poor People’s Campaign was motivated by a desire for economic justice: the idea that all people should have what they need to live. King shifted his focus to these issues after observing that gains in civil rights had not improved the material conditions of life for many African Americans. The Poor People’s Campaign was a multiracial effort aimed at alleviating poverty regardless of race.    The Poor People’s Campaign sought to address poverty through income and housing. The campaign would help the poor by dramatizing their needs, uniting all races under the commonality of hardship and presenting a plan to start to a solution. Under the "economic bill of rights," the Poor People's Campaign asked for the federal government to prioritize helping the poor with a $30 billion anti-poverty package that included a commitment to full employment, a guaranteed annual income measure and more low-income housing. The Poor People’s Campaign was part of the second phase of the civil rights movement. King said, "We believe the highest patriotism demands the ending of the war and the opening of a bloodless war to final victory over racism and poverty." Dr. King wanted to bring poor people to Washington D.C., forcing politicians to see them and think about their needs: "We ought to come in mule carts, in old trucks, any kind of transportation people can get their hands on. People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, 'We are here; we are poor; we don't have any money; you have made us this way... and we've come to stay until you do something about it." The Second Bill of Rights was a list of rights proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his State of the Union Address on January 11, 1944. In his address Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second bill of rights. Roosevelt's argument was that the "political rights" guaranteed by the constitution and the bill of rights had "proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. Roosevelt's remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee eight specific rights. Roosevelt stated that having these rights would guarantee American security, and that America's place in the world depended upon how far these and similar rights had been carried into practice. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living; The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad The right of every family to a decent home The right to adequate health care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment The right to a good education