Hamilton Nolan purports to be a author whose matters are labor, politics, and energy. In response to his web site, he has over 8,000 subscribers. Frankly, I’ve by no means heard of him and I’m fairly certain he has by no means heard of me both. In an op-ed for The Guardian on September 21, 2023, he says that Tesla “is now US labor’s most essential goal. If Musk doesn’t like that, he’s welcome to settle it with an auto employee by cage match.”

Shawn Fain vs. Elon Musk. Now, there’s a picture you possibly can’t unsee! On your personal consideration and normal amusement, go forward and browse the full story earlier than shifting on to my takeaway on it.

Picture courtesy of Tesla

The Takeaway

I’ve made my very own pro-union proclivities abundantly clear (the evils of Jimmie Hoffa however). Then again, I’m additionally a type of “cult-like traders” Hamilton speaks of, so I’m of two minds about his screed op-ed. To me, it comes right down to this: Ought to American employees be capable of lead a solidly middle-class life-style or are they wage slaves who should work two or generally three jobs whereas residing of their mom’s storage?

The weaponized capitalist system has given us a category of rich plutocrats who, due to the ignorance of John Roberts, can plow limitless quantities of cash into supporting political candidates who will promise to chop taxes on the wealthy. It has additionally given us globalization, a system that outsources jobs to the bottom wage areas of the world the place folks labor in slave-like situations to fill the cabinets at Walmart with low cost imported items.

There are such a lot of shifting items to globalization, not the least of that are the large carbon emissions created when hundreds of thousands of containers are despatched throughout oceans to be distributed by hundreds of thousands of tractor trailers. Since there isn’t a worldwide value on carbon, that price by no means will get added to the gross sales value of these items, which is a gross distortion of the financial system and creates a “Heads we win, tails you lose” scenario.

In reality, these foreign-made items ought to be marked up by 20% or extra to compensate for the environmental hurt related to their manufacture and distribution. As soon as all the prices of manufacture get taken under consideration, these foreign-made items aren’t almost as low cost as they’re claimed to be.

As well as, what made America nice was a sturdy and thriving center class. Till that comes again, America can by no means reclaim its self-proclaimed mantle of greatness. The nation is properly on its solution to turning into a feudal society based mostly on a plantation mentality that robs employees of their dignity.

So, carry on the cage match between the UAW and Tesla. Simply let me know when it’s going to occur so I can promote my Tesla shares first!

Submit Script

As I used to be penning this, I used to be listening to Pandora when Johnny Money’s Man In Black got here on. I hadn’t heard it for some time, however I used to be struck by how his phrases spoke so eloquently to the troubled instances we discover ourselves in. There may be a lot knowledge in his tune, and so I assumed that, since this text is partly about social justice, this is perhaps a superb time to share it with you all. Take pleasure in!