The Tyranny of Unemployment

'We do not have the right to a job'

November 9, 2011

There are around 40 million people in the United States who are unemployed. These people want to work, and must work to survive and provide for their families.

The companies who could hire these unemployed workers have plenty of money to do so. They have made record profits and have received billions in bailouts from our tax dollars.

But these companies do not hire us, not because they cannot afford it, but because they fear that if they produce too much they won’t be able to sell it all. The cost of labor would cut into their profits—so they decide not to hire, even with record profits, and keep unemployment numbers surging.

We have the right to vote; the right to free speech and the right to assemble. But we do not have the right to a job. The employers, however, have the right to lay us off in the millions, ruining lives, in order to protect their profit margin. The decision over whether or not to employ the masses of unemployed, with the wealth we create in the first place, is in the hands of the 1%. Such power wielded over millions of lives, enriching a tiny few at the expense of the majority, is not a just or “democratic” system. That is a form of tyranny.



-Dead Press- Journalism that's not sold-out!