"For Scripture says, 'Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,' and 'the worker deserves his wages.'" ― From the Christian Bible, 1 Timothy 5:18 (New International Version).
By Deauwand Myers
In other words, workers deserve fair wages for their labor. Seems the ancient world was far ahead of Marx some 2,500 years ago. More on that later.
The burgeoning pandemic of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) sweeping the planet, but particularly in China, Korea and Japan, has laid bare some hard truths about how societies behave and governments deal with crises.
Autocracies like China, quasi-fascist dictatorships like North Korea, and advanced democracies like Korea, Japan, and America don't seem well-equipped to competently deal with pandemics.
Though China has the political might to shut down entire provinces, and Japan and Korea have sophisticated, universal healthcare systems, institutions meant to handle biomedical emergencies on a national scale aren't as well-organized and funded as they should be.
China's response is the most maddening. You'd think after SARS, (also originating from Chinese wet markets, where exotic animals are illegally caught, caged and sold for food) the government would have thoroughly banned the re-creation of said markets.
Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has created a vast and sophisticated police state, mainly used to suppress political dissent and enforce "harmony." With that amount of resources, why can't the government apply that same security apparatus to the safeguarding of the Chinese food and drug supply?
Two reasons: First, the party and Xi are shortsighted. Xi's priorities are more about burnishing his ego as the supreme leader (even outlawing Winnie the Pooh because people joked Xi resembles the cartoon character) and consolidating the party's political power.
This shortsightedness is obvious: What's more disharmonious to a society than allowing an environment where new viruses can spread, basically shutting down the global economy and causing thousands, and potentially millions, of sicknesses and death? Worse, is it not destabilizing to hide this virus's spread from the Chinese population and the world community?
Secondly, even Xi has admitted that too many Chinese people believe in the naked pursuit of wealth above all else. This has created millions of people who seek profits regardless of the consequences.
Poisoning baby formula, adulterating meat products, and the ravaging of China's natural environment are just some of the more recent examples. Police states and the pursuit of wealth just don't mix.
Back to 1 Timothy 5:18. Just like in China, Korea, Japan, lots of other countries have discovered what I've said for years: Working hard is a sham. Koreans are discovering that working 60 or 80 hours a week for a meager salary and little time to enjoy life is unbalanced and cruel.
The work culture in Korea is particularly brutal, as it is in Japan and Mexico, which have the longest work hours of any advanced democracy, coupled with low participation in paid vacation.
America though, fetishizes working hard in ways these other countries do not. The "gig economy," where everyone is contracted out with no benefits, unreliable work hours, and so a person must cobble together jobs to eke out a living, is hailed as some great boon for the American economy. That's a lie.
Now that this novel coronavirus has broken the work cycle in many countries, the East Asian countries and America have to wrestle with some uncomfortable, but necessary questions.
For all the gig economy and hourly workers with only inconsistent, non-unionized sources of income, what do all those people do for money if they have to abstain from being a Lyft driver or line cook or waitress? With no benefits, how do they cover health costs if they have contracted the coronavirus, or a family member does?
If schools close down in America, as they already have in most of Korea and Japan, what do the parents do for childcare if they are still working? Will one parent stay home? What about single parents? Will they have to choose to take care of their child or pay rent and buy food?
At least Korea has universal healthcare; America infamously does not. Korea has a modicum of paid paternal and maternal and sick leave mandated by the state. But after that paid leave is exhausted, then what? How long will the world be under quarantine?
This virus has taught us a few things, not least of which: The social safety net is thin in Korea and laughable in America. It exposes that working hard does not equal financial security. It never has.
The neoliberal ideals of turning every person into a private corporation, and diminishing the coffers of the state for individual wealth works great for the few, not the many, and not for anyone when major crises emerge.
There needs to be a balance, and ordinary folks need to stop being worked to death.
Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.
By Deauwand Myers
 |
In other words, workers deserve fair wages for their labor. Seems the ancient world was far ahead of Marx some 2,500 years ago. More on that later.
The burgeoning pandemic of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) sweeping the planet, but particularly in China, Korea and Japan, has laid bare some hard truths about how societies behave and governments deal with crises.
Autocracies like China, quasi-fascist dictatorships like North Korea, and advanced democracies like Korea, Japan, and America don't seem well-equipped to competently deal with pandemics.
Though China has the political might to shut down entire provinces, and Japan and Korea have sophisticated, universal healthcare systems, institutions meant to handle biomedical emergencies on a national scale aren't as well-organized and funded as they should be.
China's response is the most maddening. You'd think after SARS, (also originating from Chinese wet markets, where exotic animals are illegally caught, caged and sold for food) the government would have thoroughly banned the re-creation of said markets.
Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has created a vast and sophisticated police state, mainly used to suppress political dissent and enforce "harmony." With that amount of resources, why can't the government apply that same security apparatus to the safeguarding of the Chinese food and drug supply?
Two reasons: First, the party and Xi are shortsighted. Xi's priorities are more about burnishing his ego as the supreme leader (even outlawing Winnie the Pooh because people joked Xi resembles the cartoon character) and consolidating the party's political power.
This shortsightedness is obvious: What's more disharmonious to a society than allowing an environment where new viruses can spread, basically shutting down the global economy and causing thousands, and potentially millions, of sicknesses and death? Worse, is it not destabilizing to hide this virus's spread from the Chinese population and the world community?
Secondly, even Xi has admitted that too many Chinese people believe in the naked pursuit of wealth above all else. This has created millions of people who seek profits regardless of the consequences.
Poisoning baby formula, adulterating meat products, and the ravaging of China's natural environment are just some of the more recent examples. Police states and the pursuit of wealth just don't mix.
Back to 1 Timothy 5:18. Just like in China, Korea, Japan, lots of other countries have discovered what I've said for years: Working hard is a sham. Koreans are discovering that working 60 or 80 hours a week for a meager salary and little time to enjoy life is unbalanced and cruel.
The work culture in Korea is particularly brutal, as it is in Japan and Mexico, which have the longest work hours of any advanced democracy, coupled with low participation in paid vacation.
America though, fetishizes working hard in ways these other countries do not. The "gig economy," where everyone is contracted out with no benefits, unreliable work hours, and so a person must cobble together jobs to eke out a living, is hailed as some great boon for the American economy. That's a lie.
Now that this novel coronavirus has broken the work cycle in many countries, the East Asian countries and America have to wrestle with some uncomfortable, but necessary questions.
For all the gig economy and hourly workers with only inconsistent, non-unionized sources of income, what do all those people do for money if they have to abstain from being a Lyft driver or line cook or waitress? With no benefits, how do they cover health costs if they have contracted the coronavirus, or a family member does?
If schools close down in America, as they already have in most of Korea and Japan, what do the parents do for childcare if they are still working? Will one parent stay home? What about single parents? Will they have to choose to take care of their child or pay rent and buy food?
At least Korea has universal healthcare; America infamously does not. Korea has a modicum of paid paternal and maternal and sick leave mandated by the state. But after that paid leave is exhausted, then what? How long will the world be under quarantine?
This virus has taught us a few things, not least of which: The social safety net is thin in Korea and laughable in America. It exposes that working hard does not equal financial security. It never has.
The neoliberal ideals of turning every person into a private corporation, and diminishing the coffers of the state for individual wealth works great for the few, not the many, and not for anyone when major crises emerge.
There needs to be a balance, and ordinary folks need to stop being worked to death.
Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.
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