In this modern era, so many of us live under the condition of employment, in which we represent the employee, thus working for the employer. For some employees they have been able to secure some degree of power by being extremely skilled at their job through their knowledge and experience, which is not only valuable to their employer but also not easily replaceable. Then others have power, because they are part of a union or similar, of which, any time employees join together collectively, they become stronger and thus represent a countervailing force against their employer. That said, the vast majority of employees don’t have any real power, which means that they are under the thumb of their employer, which might be okay if the vast majority of employers really cared about doing right by their employees, as contrasted to lording over them, and putting profit above employees.
Each of us has responsibilities not only to ourselves but also to the family that we are a part of, which typically requires that we have access to some amount of capital, either saved from our previous labors or possibly in our hands from monetary gifts or inheritances. This signifies that in order for us to take care of our responsibilities we need to have steady income or access to a suitable amount of savings to take care of paying those bills, and when we aren’t able to take care of our responsibilities, our life changes from secure to insecure, which is a place that we do not desire to go, or ever to be a part of.
The above signifies that who employs us, and the conditions of that employment, including our pay, our benefits, and our security definitely matters to us, and because we find that employers have an incredible amount of say as to whether or not we will even stay employed, as well as the compensation that we receive, means therefore that millions of Americans are in proximate danger of finding themselves at some point, lacking what they need, because they have been laid off, or fired from their employment, without any guarantee that they will be able to find another job promptly that will bring them back to equilibrium.
Perhaps it is right, per the capitalistic way, that employers should have essentially all of the power, and that whatever that employer dictates to us, in regards to pay, the conditions, as well as the security of the employment, should be theirs alone to decide. This though doesn’t seem fair, it also doesn’t seem right, because those that are absolutely dependent upon their paycheck and the security of their employment, so that they can take care of those needful things, should be provided with not necessarily a guarantee of a job, forever, but should at least be reasonably secure in their employment, as long as they are doing their good part as an employee.
It would seem therefore that we need a government that does more to protect those that are employed in private enterprise, not so much to provide them with unemployment insurance, or food stamps, or other welfare type things, but rather to help those employees to have a voice, which is in a lot of ways, best done either through being part of a union, or in absence of such, a government that provides to employees more robust rights, so that they can’t just be replaced by a whim or exploited or removed, without having their fair say, first.