Copied from an HN user who said much better than I could: [1] [EDIT: I&#x27;m now questioning, is it appropriate to repost their words without their knowledge or consent?]<p><i>Human labor is not a commodity.<p>This was the common sense amongst all working people for most of the 20th century. Samuel Gompers, maybe the most conservative labor leader of his time, said &quot;You cannot weigh the human soul on the same scales as piece of pork.&quot; And working people, along with the management class for the most part, understood this to be an undeniable truth. In fact, this piece of common sense was enshrined into US law with the Clayton Act of 1914, which stated &quot;The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce.&quot; But in the last 20 years, as capital has gained the firm upper hand, the common sense understanding has shifted towards the idea that labor is in fact a commodity.<p>The ideas behind the so-called &quot;on-demand workforce&quot; further solidify the notion that labor is a commodity. After all, you can order an uber ride just as easily as you can order vitamins online.<p>It&#x27;s so pervasive that even I, someone born into a union family and a firm believer in the idea of worker solidarity, have to force myself to believe that labor is not a commodity. Why? The business class treated labor as expendable in 1915, just as they do in 2015. Why did working people understand this truth in 1915 but not today? I don&#x27;t know.<p>I read a recently released sociology book earlier this year (going crazy looking for the title&#x2F;author, can&#x27;t find it), that posits millennials are far more likely than any recent generation to blame themselves for the problems they face. It&#x27;s part of the reason that the self-help industry is bigger business than it&#x27;s ever been. It&#x27;s not always your fault. Our modern economy is built on rotten ideas like labor = commodity. If we want to do something about inequality, it&#x27;s time that we subject fundamentally unjust ideas like these to a serious critique.</i><p>[1] Thank you maceo: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=9502757" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=9502757</a>