Corporations in Control

Is freedom present within the labor market? If so, why do people within the labor market feel unfree? Workers must be free in two senses for capitalism to work. They must be free to sell their labor power, which means they must have property rights of their own labor. Meaning an individual must be free in a sense to do whatever they want to do with their labor. Also workers must be free from the means of production. This means that people may not have access to factories, or stores that have the capital to manufacturer or produce goods or services. Because workers are free from factories, they lack what is necessary to produce commodities to sell in the market. Therefore, the only thing a free individual has to sell is his or her own labor. Due to the number of restraints on workers within the labor market, employers are given the upper hand. Companies and corporations are trying their best to disassociate the labor process with skilled labor. As the labor process becomes more dependent on skilled labor, the less control employers will have on their employees. For example, if a skilled employee wants a wage increase, then he or she is more likely to receive one because he or she is not as replaceable if he or she were an unskilled worker. This is only one particular way that corporations control their workers. Supervising employees, quotas, and routine evaluations are other ways to check up on employees and their productivity. General Electric, one of the largest corporations in the world, cuts the bottom ten percent of their employees every year to ensure high returns and productivity.