An equilibrium of empty bellies

"Raise wages? Can it be done? They are fixed by cast-iron laws at the lowest indispensible figure - just the bare minimum so that workers can feed on dry bread and produce children. If wages drop too low the workers die, and the demand for more men raises them again. If they go too high there's too much labour available, and they come down again. It is an equilibrium of empty bellies, a life-sentance in the prison of hunger." Souvarine the mechanic, in Germinal by Emile Zola.

Things may have improved an awful lot for the ordinary worker since the days of Germinal's deep, profiteering grey mines but are the hands that feed us really so cold and brutal?  Businesses want profit and what is outlined above makes straight forward fast talking money making sense, especially in a recession fuelled climate such as today, or that in Germinal itself. But it is business without emotion and without care; so how does it arise in human culture? Fortunately in todays world there are trade unions, a generally more open culture and (apparently) more accountable represenatitives of the people.

But the idea of a ruthless business model is far from stagnant. I watched the film Moon, which incidentally has a fantastic soundtrack by Clint Mansell, this morning in which a man; Sam, has a 3 year contract performing lunar work before being promised a return to Earth. The company decides it's too expensive to repeatedly send workers to and from the moon, have Sam cloned hundreds of times and set them to work one at a time for 3 year contracts before killing each and repeating the process. I think it can be agreed the ethics are questionable even if those maltreated are 'only' clones. Of course you don't have to look as far as sci-fi for examples. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Mexico mining disaster and of course the most recent failing of the banks are all prime examples of where often profit comes before safety - whether that be personal, personel, environmental or social! What is the best way of turning this way of thinking on its head?