Shaking It Here Boss

Cool Hand Luke is firmly ensconced in the top ten of Bagholder’s all-time favorite movies. The film depicts the story of Luke Jackson, who repeatedly questions authority and steadfastly refuses to go along with the system; a couple of traits Bagholder has been known to exhibit on occasion. The movie's symbolic theme is how institution is a blunt force instrument leaving individuals the choice to either submit, or be ground down to the point where there is nothing left. For those who haven’t seen Cool Hand Luke, the crux of the story revolves around a convicted criminal sentenced to hard labor on a “chain gang.” When this movie was filmed in the 1960s, chain gangs were the closest thing left in this country (since Civil war times) to overt - in your face - slave labor.

For decades now, we have all been conditioned to believe the institution of slavery was abolished post-Civil war. Bagholder would argue nothing could be further from the truth. Granted, we are no longer paraded around in leg irons by taskmasters, but slavery is more pervasive today than ever. Webster’s dictionary defines a slave as "a person held in forced servitude". Simply put, if you do not own the fruit of your labor, you are a slave. Period.

Bagholder has studied extensively the economics of slavery (particularly early 1800s cotton plantations) and can tell you with authority that owning a plantation with slaves was a costly proposition. The slave owners did control 100% of what their slaves produced, but it was not without cost. They provided the slaves with food, housing, clothes, medical care, and of course, supervision. On average, this cost the plantation owners about 1/2 the productivity of their slaves. In other words, a slave produced X dollars of goods per year, 1/2 X went to their needs, and 1/2 X went to the owner.

Fast forward to today, we live in a world where the median gross income in this country is $35,801. For example, here in Arizona, a McDonald’s employee (200,000 worldwide) working full time earns about 32 grand a year (slightly less than the median wage). In the last 12 months, McDonald’s Corp has made $102,000 in profit for every person they employ (Link here). The owners kept 70k for themselves and gave the employees 32k. Making things worse is that 32k is the employee’s gross wage; they would be lucky to net 25k. In other words, the employee produces $102K/year in profits, but takes home less than 25% of the proceeds.

The idea of slavery is an emotional hot button, for sure. But removing the emotional part and looking strictly at its economics, you can see the plantation slaves did not have to worry about rent, food costs, medical care, etc. All those needs were met with 1/2 of their productivity. Compare this to the Mcdonald’s employee, who is only netting 1/4 of his productivity. Do you think the 1/4 they take home covers their housing, food, medical, etc.? Of course not. They could probably make ends meet if they were lucky enough to get half, like the average plantation slave. This, however, would require our current-day owners to take a smaller slice of the pie, so not likely. By the way, in terms of what percentage of productivity the employees garner, what Mcdonald’s is giving their workers is better than most. Home Depot, Disney, Coke, and Walmart are all much worse.

Bag, "nobody is forced to work at McDonald’s.”

That is correct. The people who work there choose to work there. As we discussed in a previous blog, a pool of forced slave labor is nowhere near as productive as a willing labor pool. The plantation owners of the 1800s were getting 1/2 the proceeds of a LESS productive labor pool. Today's owners (Gman and corporations) are getting 3/4 of a MORE productive pool. This is why slavery had to go. Morality had nothing to do with it. Getting rid of woefully underproductive costly slaves, and replacing them with a lower cost willing labor pool enabled the wealthy to get a bigger slice of the pie. The morality part was just a shiny veneer that allowed the idea of abolishing slavery to be sold to the masses. The thing is, slavery was abolished in name only. The owners have simply replaced the word “slavery” with the word ”job,” diabolically morphing the proverbial stick into a carrot. Although, as Luke wisely pointed out: “calling it a job, don’t make it right.”

“Oh, come on, Bag, I go to a job I like, for a wage I accept; I'm not a slave."

Really? As this is written, today’s date is April 15th. Tax Day. It is the day everyone must reconcile with our modern-day plantation owners (Government) exactly how much of our labor belongs to us and how much to them…or for those who know Luke, how much of our dirt, is in Bossman’s ditch.

By definition, every working person in the country is a slave for the portion of the year they have to work, just to fork over to the plantation owners their piece of the pie. According to thestreet.com, on average, we work the first 105 days every year, just to pay our tax bill. In what world is that not slavery?

For those of you still struggling to see the nature of your enslavement after reading today’s article, Strother Martin said it best: “What we have here….is a failure, to communicate...some people, you just can’t reach.” To you folks, Bagholder recommends you stop what you are doing right now and watch Cool Hand Luke. Be sure to see Luke for who he is: A Christ-like existential figure gifting his fellow prisoners a taste of psychological freedom, and the knowledge that while they may be a prisoner in body, they never have to be a prisoner in spirit. He serves as a stark reminder to all of us how the tyrants running this country today may be able to rob us of our productivity, inflate away our savings, and tax away our wages….but they can never cage our spirit, unless we allow it.

That is enough wisdom for today; time to make some breakfast. Bagholder is thinking 50 eggs.