Comments on: The Right to a Job, Food & Water, and Housing

By: Matt Ryan

Matt Ryan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:54:59 +0000

i am a 19 year old college student in chicago and i had an idea related to the right to a job, but i don’t know if i am correct. on job applications it says that it is illegal for the employer to discriminate when hiring. i saw an add up for a position and applied. it has been nearly a month and i have not had any response to my application. if the employer had hired someone else i would have no qualms, but instead i find the employer has yet to hire anyone, and that the add for the position remains up.

does this not imply a discrimination?

if i apply for a job a don’t get the job that is ok. what seems discriminatory though is that for some unspecified reason i was not hired and the employer is still waiting for another candidate. what are they looking for in that candidate that i do not have? age? experience? perhaps they want a female for the position? whatever the reason, it is a discrimination, and a violation of my rights as an american citizen, is it not?

By: mjismynameo

mjismynameo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:15:30 +0000

The right to a job? What if a human does not WANT a job? Then what?
The right to housing? So we should PROVIDE free housing to all of those humans who don’t want to work?
Is that social justice? Or just demoralizing ?

“being tired at the end of the day is better than all the riches” grandmother sarah 1991

By: bozhidar balkas

bozhidar balkas — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:01:38 +0000

hp,
yes, on general level, i equate the 2 books. but as u probably know, on descriptive level the two books cannot be equated.
there r numerous commands in the bible that differ from the ones in torah.
eg, jesus had been (mis)quoted as saying , u shall always have poor among us.
this statement, to me, is a horrible one. we can see that the rich people rejoice over it.
what jesus meant is that there will always be stupid, incapable people among us, etc.
another galling statement attributed to him is, Treat others as u wd have them treat u.
but in life this dictum often leads to disappointment.
eg, u greet s’mone and that s’mone is actually annoyed. it happans often.
how about helping s’mone w. money? i think we all know the answer to that one.

By: hp

hp — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:30:36 +0000

AaronG, I see you all are getting a ‘new’ Yankee base out there in your area?

bozhidar, that you always equate Torah and Bible with religion, faith, God, is understandable.

By: bozhidar balkas

bozhidar balkas — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:04:52 +0000

aarong, hp,
i agree that faith differs significantly from organized religions and what these teach.
but a faith w. shelter, food, a feeling that one belongs, peace, clean water, work, etc. is vastly better than anyone’s faith w.o. all or some of these needs or must haves.
in fact, bns of people cannot posibly have faith (perhaps some hope/wishful thinking, etc) in so many lands.
torah and bible were writtten mostly by men; men who knew much less than what we know now and still much, much less what people might know in millennia to come.
the two books teem w. misteachings, rage, intolerance, commandments, contradiction, rationalization.
political discourse to us compares well w. religious discourse. i do not know whether politicians learned to ‘talk’ to us like that from priests or the other way around, but bns evaluate the ‘discourse’ as talk. sad, but true.
and one doesn’tt blame a blind horse for eating some dung along w. some weeds and straw; corollary being, one can’t blame people for eating dung along tainted meat, and few vegs for millennia.
in add’n, to me, all of our feelings, including faith, r inseparable from one another and from reality.
all these r parts of unified reality. and we only have one. thank u

By: AaronG

AaronG — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:24:39 +0000

hp, the trick is to never associate the terms ‘faith’ with ‘religion’. Faith is based on knowledge, reason and research. Religion Pty Ltd is not. You think I’m anti-religion? There’s Someone much more powerful who also thinks religion stinks……………and can do something about it.

Now go to bed up there. Some of us Downunder (little southern colony of America, the bit of land that surrounds Pine Gap) are working hard to pay off your sub-prime debts - 3 hours till I jump on the bike and ride home :)

By: hp

hp — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:19:08 +0000

Once again, it’s lack of religion which is the big problem.
All these false religious institutions and the people who man them are irreligious.
Kinda like John McCain is a war hero. Yea, right..
Kinda like all the liars and thieves everywhere.
They are not religious.
They are liars, thieves and worse.
AaronG, with all your anti religion talk, it’s ironic that you are no doubt more ‘religious’ than 99% of these pretenders by virtue of your behavior, intentions and compassion.

By: AaronG

AaronG — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:27:39 +0000

bozhidar balkas,
Yes, religions r dangerous, very bloody and dangerous. Big Religion, as cooked up by Constantine as a religio-politico way of controlling the people, is no different to Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Military and Big Corporations…………..except they don’t pay a cent of tax.

The Bible has nothing to do with the above-mentioned corporations, except when it mentions their downfall in the final book, Revelation. Ironically, this downfall is to begin with religion (at the hands of the UN), which the Bible holds to account as the most hypocritical and bloodthirsty organisation on the planet.

With religion gone, humanity can then attain the basic necessities of food, land, water, jobs and housing without the history of religious conflict and a mistaken belief in a god-given piece of land holding us back.

Israeli leaders need to heed some of my parenting advice that I give to my two pre-school kids at home - “share it or go to your room”!

By: bozhidar balkas

bozhidar balkas — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:35:07 +0000

edwin pell,
yes, i was aware that the US ruling class fears domestic terrorism.
but US congress is not ahead of me.
decades ago i sent letters to eds saying such things as, What is preventing US to go fascist?
and if amers refuse to fight for the plutocrats, plutocrats can hire aliens to fight their wars and at fraction of costs.
unfortunately, my letters were never published.

aarong,
issaiah omits to say that there was then and is now land, housing, work, food, water, peace, etc., for each human being.
and i do not know how many people who evaluate torah as words of yahweh now deny palestinians land, food, peace, housing, work, water, etc.
it seems millinos of ashkenazic, mizrahic, and sephardic peoples do that daily to palestinians.
religions r dangerous. none of the ones i know stand for things i just enumerated. it’s sad but true.
thank u

By: Edwin Pell

Edwin Pell — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:57:06 +0000

If people do not have jobs that provide them with food, water, and shelter then they must seek these by other means. Like theft or war (theft on a bigger and bloodier scale). So if a society wants internal peace it needs to have and/or provide jobs. This is of course at odds with the owners of the means of production that want cheap labor. Who desire the reserve army of the unemployed. I guess this is why the prison population is so large in the U.S..

By: AaronG

AaronG — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:06:45 +0000

Thanks for the article Dave.

In regards to the three problems addressed in your article, I think I found some answers:

The right to a job/The right to housing

“And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating” (Isaiah 65-21-23) These verses are interesting because they spell the end of expropriation of other people’s labor. The work that you do directly benefits you and the people around you. No more toiling to build skyscrapers in Riyadh for others while getting very little in return. However, with no worker grievances, this will mean the end of labor unions……

The right to food and water

“There will come to be plenty of grain on the earth;
On the top of the mountains there will be an overflow.” (Psalm 72:16)
These verses are not talking about food PRODUCTION, but food DISTRIBUTION, since capitalism is soon to be crushed.

Obviously, before the above-mentioned future benefits can occur, the current gangsters/rulers have to be dealt with………

“And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite” (Dan 2:44)

By: Al

Al — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:05:22 +0000

I think every human being on our planet has a right to clean air, water, food & shelter. The easiest way to attain these objectives in modern society is through employment, so every human being has a right to a job that pays a living wage.

Unfortunately, that’s not how Capitalism works; unemployment is good for Capitalism, it keeps wages down & keeps labor under control of the Capitalist vermin.

When will the American sheeple realize that Capitalism is their greatest & most dangerous enemy? Wake up people; it’s NOT Communism, Islamofacism or terrorism, it’s Capitalism.

By: zhann

zhann — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:32:17 +0000

As most here, I am a fan of Socialism. In my honest opinion, however, I do not believe the world is ready for Socialism nor will it be any time soon. The unfortunate thing with socialism is that it breeds laziness and corruption, as could be seen in the former Soviet Union, currently in China, and anywhere where people are taken care of regardless of their contribution. In concept, Socialism is ideal … everyone is guaranteed a relatively comfortable life. In practice, however, it is a bit different.

In response to the article, I can’t see how guaranteeing a Job, a House or even food is possible. I think it is important for society to help individuals attain these items, but guaranteeing it is a bit much. As mentioned, there are far too many people today that will take advantage of the situation. A simple example in the USA is the welfare system. Welfare attempts to provide everyone with at least Housing and Food, but its abuse is so rampant that it is uncontrollable.

Nothing in this world is ideal. There will always be jobless, there will always be hungry, there will always be homeless and there will always be the elite. Trying to minimize the negative is attainable, trying to eliminate it is unrealistic.

By: Edwin Pell

Edwin Pell — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:47:55 +0000

Socialism seem to work fine for the roads which are all government owned and operated.

Bozhidar, why do you think CONgress passed the home grown terrorist act. Why do you think the federal government spends 200 billion dollars per year spying on Americans? They are way ahead of you (pro-active). Since the working class has no money or resources to use they are easy to pick off. Most are so stupid they profess their anti-government leaning on the internet that makes them extra easy to tag and track.

By: bozhidar balkas

bozhidar balkas — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:34:10 +0000

having finished last in my class and not finishing even elementary school (thus the crooks never got to me) and having no face to lose, i can make following prediction.
if plutocratic rule continues to oppress members of nonruling classes, second class citizens will turn to terrorism against the ruling class.
thank u

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:16:48 +0000

U.S. Government: Extreme Weather Probably Caused by Global Warming
A new Bush administration report on recent extreme weather, such as flooding in the Midwest, says that human-caused climate change is making storms more intense, with downpours that used to occur every two decades likely to increase in frequency.
Thomas Karl, co-editor of the report, said, “As greenhouse gasses increase, the faster they increase, the more extreme weather and climate events we’ll be seeing.” The report is the administration’s first major compilation of climate change data.
The report says extreme weather will be the most challenging aspect of climate change, noting that days in the upper Midwest when it has rained more than 4 inches have increased by 50 percent. Karl said the hotter atmosphere holds more moisture.

So Karl thinks hotter atmosphere holds more moisture, brilliant and again I must say and we thought all the thinkers were gone.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:05:29 +0000

Hasn’t the United Nations declared a “job, food & water, and housing” to be the right of every human on the planet? Not in exactly those words, but in effect? Apparently Dave Welsh knows that the UN has, because if I am not mistaken, the UN calls these necessities “basic human rights.”

In reply, we DV posters quote Einstein. Make our usual obeisances, in our familiar phrasing. Rattle our little socialist sabres.

God, it gets tedious reading DV articles and the patented posts that follow them. Consider the state of “leftist” awareness in this country that John Birch in the 1950’s obviously knew more about what was the daily business and concerns of the United Nations than lefties in America in 2008 know. Sheeeeeit.

For a more pertinent quotation than Einstein’s, there’s a Pope couplet that goes something like:

“By telling them things of which they know not
As if they were new, men may be taught.”

By: Jeremy Wells

Jeremy Wells — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:06:36 +0000

Some comments to this progressive article that reaches the limit of current trade union thinking. Dan Hawkins post (with a little help from Albert Einstein) logically concludes by answering the unanswered questions in the article.

The article has several serious errors that reflect upon the profoundly inadequate trade union consciousness dominent in the unions. Official trade union ideology in the U.S. is that trade unions are “business partners” of corporate capitalism. This philosophy is still operative, even when the unions are being systematically destroyed. (Recent defeated strike of American Axle workers, the massive loss of “living wage” jobs to China, the defeat of the “employee fair rights bill” by Bush, the end of employer paid health care, etc.etc.)

Until the organized labor movement understand that corpoate, global capitalism is
the enemy of all working people, including it’s employees, will the labor movement be able to chart a new path. Thus there is no need to create a political party to represent the economic interests of working people, nor is there any need to great a national mass media to educate working people to the reality.

Nerly every sentence of this perhaps well-meaning article, reveals vast areas of mis-understanding if not factual error. A few examples;

“The right to a job” There is no such right in a capitalist economy. Corporate capitalism does not recognize the needs or even existence of human beings. Human beings are referred to as “human resources” and their paycheck comes from the “Human Resources Department”.

Human beings are a cost of doing business, to be minimized or eliminated where possible because the humans and their needs forever undermine the maximization of profit. Thus employer paid health care is minimized or deleted, health insurance is eliminated, and taxes (to support public education, health care, etc) are minimized or eliminated.

“What if the way the economy is structured means there will always be a lot of unemployed people,…”

Capitalism instrinsically “structures” the economy to it’s inherant need to maximize profit for the owners of capital.

“…as has always been the case since the dawn of capitalism 200-some years ago?”
According to “A History of Capitalism 1500-2000 new edition” by Michel Beud,
capitalism has been around some 500 years! Also check out the classic
“Capitalism and Slavery” by Eric Williams. Slavery turned an ancient practise into a globalized big business.

All labor “leaders” such as David Walsh need to breakout of the “business partner” mentality (”frame”) common in trade unions today. The solution to today’s many economic crises is to to beg for not existent “rights” from capitalists, but to end the global system of gangster capitalism that promotes war, mass starvation, global warming, resource crises (oil, food, water, etc.) as it seeks out massive profits.

Best source of daily news and info from a socialist perspective:
World Socialist Web Site
http://www.wsws.org

By: joed

joed — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:21:35 +0000

you amerikans let it happen to you. you got no complaint. if you really care about the commonwealth why don’t you have a general strike, why not a boycott. Anything?! no, you got what you deserved. you have reaped what you have (allowed to be) sewn.
sacrifice and hardship are in order now. but you wont sacrifice anything. too bad about the children, isn’t it! the best you can do is complain and whine on DV. this is the “FREE SPEECH ZONE” of the internet.

By: hp

hp — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:42:55 +0000

A little perspective to this dilemma may be achieved by reading the article below……”Little Waste in Shantytown.”
If not anything else, it is inspiring in its collective example of human spirit and tolerance.

I wrote the editor(s) asking why no comments. I’ve yet to hear from them.
Very curious…