The Jungle

I recently finished The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. If you have not read it, it portrays the struggles of a Lithuanian immigrant named Yurgis Rudkus, who comes to America in the early 1900’s to seek the good life he has heard is possible in this country. Unfortunately, he discovers the streets are not paved with gold, so to speak. Rudkus is forced to take a job as a manual laborer for a slaughterhouse. The work is backbreaking, the hours long, and the pay minimal. Before long, Rudkus has no choice but to send his wife and her family members to work, including children, if they are to survive. They are fleeced by a real estate agent who tricks them into purchasing a house they cannot afford and then kicks them out when they have exhausted their efforts to keep it. They are abused by their bosses who see them as cheap, expendable labor. Illness and death are at every corner, and homelessness and starvation the brutal reality for this family.

It is a truly depressing story. And Sinclair didn’t hold back any details about the conditions of the meat packing industry, so it was disgusting as well. I wasn’t sure I could make it all the way through, but I felt that I should. I knew there was an important message.

Sinclair wanted to draw attention to the plight of the immigrants, of the poor, of those forced to work in unsanitary and intolerable conditions for unfair wages. He wanted to shed light on the corruption of business and government.  A socialist, he wanted to help force change in this capitalist nation plagued by greed.

While slowly making my way through The Jungle, I was reading my history book for class. And I got more of the same story. I read about laborers who struggled for decent wages, how they were beaten and arrested and sometimes even killed when they decided to fight. I read about corruption in government and business. I read about the unsafe working conditions in many factories. One very infamous incident is the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Over one hundred people died because they couldn’t escape the building. Exit and stairwell doors were locked. The flimsy fire escape collapsed. No water came out of the fire hoses. Many of the victims were young immigrant women, who worked countless hours and were paid nearly nothing.

I picked up another book during this time and it told of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

So, I got to really thinking about all this. Yes, conditions have improved greatly since then. There are laws in place to protect workers. We have minimum wage laws, too. And unions.

But we still have corruption and greed. We always will. I was just thinking it seems we get stuck in cycles. We had the Great Depression. Then regulation changed things (i.e. Glass Steagall, higher taxes for the rich, etc.) The middle class grew. Then we had deregulation and the middle class started to shrink. Then we had bad behavior on Wall Street and the Housing Crisis and now we are in another Depression. (I call it a depression, not just a recession) People are still working for what cannot be called a living wage. People are still struggling to keep their homes and feed their children. Meanwhile, CEOs of large corporations are giving themselves large bonuses and taking lavish vacations.

We should be helping and taking care of all the people of this nation.

I know what you are thinking. I’m a socialist. I know you might want to tell me to move to another country, a socialist one, and see how I like it. Maybe you believe capitalism is the best way possible. Maybe you believe rich people shouldn’t have to pay more taxes because they are “the job creators.” Maybe you think everyone on welfare is lazy. Maybe you think people who are poor are that way because they aren’t smart. Maybe you think unions are all corrupt.

Honestly, I am not a socialist. Or a communist or Anti-American or anti-capitalism. In theory, capitalism allows anyone to rise up, become successful, and make lots of money. In reality, capitalism can and does promote greed. It promotes the idea of everyone for themselves. It creates a dividing and divisive line between the haves and the have-nots.

It’s not necessarily that capitalism doesn’t work. It does. But because it involves humans, it cannot be perfect. Humans are selfish and greedy. And the ultimate goal of capitalism is profit, not the well-being of those working to earn those profits. So, for capitalism to be the best that it can be, it must be regulated. And there must be consequences for those who break laws, abuse the system, abuse others.

And we shouldn’t forget that in the end, life is about more than profits. People don’t exist merely to produce goods or provide services and they are more than their production quotas.

I know, there are issues with welfare programs. I know there are lazy people who will do whatever possible to not have to work.  But there are also people who have little choice but to depend on welfare or unemployment.

I know that there are CEOs and business owners who worked hard to get to where they are. But, if they are making money because many other people are working hard to make and sell their products, why should they get exorbitant bonuses instead of paying their employees a salary they can actually live on?

I am not an economist. I don’t know everything, I don’t have the answers. It’s not easy to solve the problem of economic inequality we have in this country. It’s not easy to find the sweet spot between a free market economy and social justice. And I am an idealist. I believe humanity and love are more important that products. I don’t believe people should be treated as goods, as expendable, as machines. I believe we should help each other, lift each other up, and not trample each other in a desperate bid to reach the top. So, I probably won’t become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

That’s what has been on my mind. I’m planning to do some more reading on capitalism and socialism and economics.

I am glad I read The Jungle and I am grateful for the knowledge I have gained in my history class. As my teacher points out, “ignorance of the past often makes us its prisoner.”