Reply #131: My grandfather worked in a coal mine for $1 a day... [View All]

[kentuck]

and they paid him with scrip, which were pieces of brass about the size of a half-dollar, which he would then trade for corn meal, flour, beans, salt, or lard. It wasn't even money as we know it. Was he a slave or a laborer? Consider that there was no where else to take his labor. Survival from day to day has no "free will". There were times like that not that long ago. It is nonsense to suggest that working people today simply quit their job and go to another when they have children to feed and bills to pay. "Free will" sounds good as a theory but in reality, does not exist for many, many workers. It is not that he would not have liked to moved to another job but there was no other job. And not everyone has a special skill that they can incorporate themselves into their own business and thrive. That's a dream world. out of touch with reality. Republican, almost.