The Archnox Irregular: 13 June 2021





In my time on discord frequenting some of the most fringe political circles on the internet, I have encountered the capitalist argument time and time again that, if workers do not like the working conditions of their job, they can simply choose to get a new job. Today, in the United States, a variation on this scenario is playing out. The pandemic is coming to an end, and the economy is rapidly reopening. But workers are refusing to go back to work.

For the first time in decades, wage slaves have gained the upper hand against their masters. The stresses of reopening have created an abundance of new jobs, but the refusal of big business to pay their "essential workers" a decent wage has resulted in a labor shortage. It has resulted in a work force that is less willing to work for less.

According to those right wing arguments that I have heard over the years, this is a positive development of capitalism. This is the free market at its best. Now, employers too will be held to the iron laws of supply and demand.

On June 9th, the National Republican Congressional Committee released a |press statement wherein NRCC spokesman Mike Berg bemoaned the "labor shortage" and accused "socialist" Democrats of causing it. Now, here I was thinking that the Republican Party was the party of free minds and free markets when they aren't even willing to let the free market resolve its own labor shortage. What's up with that?

In reality, the Republican Party is a party of an opportunistic sort of freedom, the sort of freedom that slaveholders touted in the antebellum South. It's a party of elites run for elites. The Republicans love a good free market, all the way up until it benefits the working class rather than their billionaire donors. This is not to say that the Democrats care much more about the working class than the Republicans. President Biden has, after all, already rolled back his promises to forgive student loan debt and make a $2,000 COVID-19 relief package. This is only to say that, if you support the Republicans on the condition that they are consistent supporters of the free market, then perhaps you should consider their views on workers expressing their rights in a "free" market.