Food Chain

We used to have a fairly compact food chain in this country, owners at the top, labor at the bottom, but since the owners and bosses were still integrated into our society together for the most part, workers were able to see with their own eyes when those at the top of the food chain were taking too large of a helping. The ownership class of America knew that if they got too fat, political movements and labor movements would rise up, there would be conflict, and the pie would be reapportioned.

This familiarity among all those eating from the same table certainly did not produce harmony between the richest and poorest, but each side knew that the other was watching. This served to govern greed and callousness to a welcome degree. The boundaries of allowable exploitation were always tested, but they were also often respected, because they could be determined. Like in a tug of war, the workers and the owners could feel their counterpart when they pulled on the rope.

Now we have an elongated globalized food chain. The ownership class is often multinational, distant and secluded from the observing eyes of the worker ants. Layers of empire surround financial power like moats. Against the worker of today stands a machine, a system. We are not all in the mix together, we will not pass on the street. When the food chain is elongated, it is easier to walk away from the social contract that binds a society.