The following is an excerpt from a new blog by Glenn Jacobs, aka Kane, on his position on being an independent contractor and the lack of benefits the classification comes with.
Help, Help, I’m Being Exploited!!
by Glenn Jacobs
Because of my legal status as an independent contractor, as opposed to a company employee, I am often asked if I feel that it is fair that I do not receive employer-provided benefits like health insurance and a retirement program. Why is it that I should be responsible for securing those services myself and not my employer? Gasp, don’t I feel as if I’m being exploited?!
Isn’t it ironic that even after history has proven his theories wrong, dangerous, and potentially suicidal, Karl Marx still influences so much of contemporary economic thought?
The idea that businessmen exploit their workers is straight out of Marx’s theory of economics. According to Marx, the relationship between business and labor is one of conflict and exploitation on the part of capitalists. To be fair, Marx was reacting to the crony capitalism of his day. Many businessmen did indeed owe their position to favors from the state, and, unfortunately, this system is alive and well today. However, where Marx identified the business owners as unjust exploiters and framed his analysis of class as one of conflict between the workers and the owners of the means of production, libertarians recognize that it is the state which is the culprit. Our class analysis delves not into the conflict between economic classes, but between political classes, i.e. those who possess political power and those who are subject to that power. In reality, there is no conflict between economic classes at all. In fact, the relationship between business and labor is, or at least in a real free market would be, harmonious.
First, let us dispense with the idea that business owners are the only ones who own the means of production. Every individual owns his labor which is the ultimate source of all production. So all of us are owners of a means of production in this manner. Of course, the difference between a capitalist and an ordinary worker is that the capitalist has accumulated resources and wealth – capital – in order to greatly enhance his ability to produce. In most cases, this includes the ability to buy the productivity of other individuals. In other words, buying their labor.
Check out the complete blog online at LewRockwell.com.
(Thanks to WrestleZone.com reader Greg Richardson for sending along the link)
