"ENLIGHTENED SELF INTEREST!"

My boss wants me to work for a certain number of hours per day. If my shift is eight hours, he feels entitled to expect eight hours work. He is prepared to pay me money to acquire my labour for said shift.

I want money to buy food, accommodation, and perhaps a few luxuries. To that end I am prepared to commit eight hours to supplying the required labour.

I want to earn the maximum possible hourly rate, and my boss would ideally like to pay as little as possible.

Negotiation seems to be required, and after deep and meaningful discussion, we are able to come to an agreement which is satisfactory to both. I don't insist upon a wage which will cripple his finances, and he doesn't insist upon a wage which will starve me and my family.

As has been said above, some such restraint is essential, and the result I have stated is the only way in which capital and labour can both survive in the long term.

Add to the mix, tax levies on both my wages and his profits, which will be used to fund essential services, and you have Capitalism and Socialism co-existing in a workable way.

Where this all goes wrong, IMO, is in the fact that there is always envy concerning the differences in pay engendered by rank. The labourers want to have the same pay as tradesmen, and the tradesmen want the same as middle management etc. etc., and the shareholders always want a larger share of the cake.

Somewhere in the middle of all this is a solution everybody COULD live with, if only they would consider long term self interest, but of course they never will, which is why the UK auto industry was destroyed by stupid union leaders striking for 40% pay hikes in the sixties, and also why it took minimum wage legislation to alleviate the plight of the lowest paid, criminally exploited, UK workers.

The recent history of my country is loaded with instances of workers generating huge (obscenely so in many cases) profits for cpmpanies that pay peanuts, and also of companies declining and failing because of workers skiving for two thirds of their supposed working hours.

Capital abd labour cannot survive without each other. In reality there is no "US" and "THEM", only "US", but how long, do you suppose, will it be before they finally decide to work together?

I've been a Conservative (large C UK Tory) all my working life, but I also consider myself a socialist (small s), having paid my share to help those less fortunate.

Don T.