April 1st, 2024 | Allan Ray

The Corporate Pursuit Of Cheap Labour Is Destroying Our Society

Everything from feminism to immigration has been a corporate ploy.

In a world where corporations reign supreme, their unyielding pursuit of profit and cheap labour has shaped the socio-political landscape in profound ways. Since the beginning of the post-war era, these entities have sought to expand the labour supply as a means to drive down costs and maximize their bottom line. Key milestones in this strategy include the promotion of feminism, the push for open borders, and the adoption of diversity and equity initiatives. Although women in the workforce have been an overall net positive for society, we can't discount the effects they have had on incomes.

The first major play occurred when corporations actively began endorsing feminist ideologies and recognizing the untapped potential in the female workforce. By advocating for gender equality in the workplace, they were able to increase the labour pool, thereby driving down wages overall. Prior to this, women's participation in the labour force was limited, keeping wages relatively high due to scarcity. As more women entered the workforce, competition for jobs intensified and wages adjusted downwards to accommodate the new supply.

The feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, ostensibly aimed at securing equal rights for women, also served the corporate agenda by driving millions of women into the workforce. With the addition of all these new workers, labour became vastly more abundant and allowed companies to offer lower wages. Data shows that real wages for men started stagnating in the 1970s right as women began entering the workforce in greater numbers. In the late 1970s, salaries and wages began to decline sharply. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “From the end of World War II through the late 1970s, the U.S. economy generated rapid wage growth that was widely shared. Since 1979, however, average wage growth has decelerated sharply, with the biggest declines in wage growth at the bottom and the middle.”

The participation rate of women in the workforce grew from 38% in 1960 to 50% by 1978.

On the Wikipedia page for Women In The Workforce, it is admitted, “Largely seen as a boon for industrial society, women in the workforce contribute to a higher national economic output as measure in GDP as well as decreasing labour costs by increasing the labour supply in a society.”

Next, corporations turned their attention to immigration policy, lobbying for open borders to further flood the market with cheap labour and more consumers. The influx of immigrants, both skilled and unskilled, has created an abundance of workers willing to accept lower wages to secure employment. According to the Goldman School Of Public Policy, “The early theoretical simulations, as well as the more recent work by Borjas (2003), suggest potentially large impacts of immigration on the nation’s (United States) wage structure.”

By lobbying for more open borders and increasing immigration, both legal and illegal, big business ensures an endless pipeline of new workers willing to work for low wages. Wage growth in Canada has remained relatively stagnant for decades, but is now facing declines due to an influx of more than one million immigrants since 2022. According to StatsCanada, the retail, construction and accommodation industries have seen the lowest growth in wages since 2019.

Corporate media, mostly owned by the same corporations with the same agenda, have worked to undermine and “debunk” studies showing the negative impacts on wages caused by immigration and feminism.

Now, in a cunning twist, corporations promote diversity and equity initiatives, not solely out of moral conviction but also as a strategy to tap into underrepresented segments of the population. The intent is to make more people of diverse backgrounds and sexualities employable. These initiatives also aim to make workplaces more accommodating to all walks of life for the purpose of retention. By investing in training and development programs for individuals from various backgrounds, they expand the labour pool even further while creating more comfortable and “tolerant” environments for new workers. This not only keeps wages low but also helps corporations avoid lawsuits, controversies and boycotts by diversifying their workforce, and reducing dependency on a single group of workers or suppliers. It also works as a way to virtue-signal to consumers and improve ESG scores for future credit ratings.

While these actions have led to short-term benefits for corporations, the long-term consequences have been devastating for society. Income inequality has soared, social cohesion has frayed, and the working class has struggled to make ends meet. As it stands now, the pursuit of profit at any cost has transformed the fabric of society, with corporations acting as the puppeteers pulling the strings of global labour dynamics.

Next up on the corporate docket: promoting the advancement of artificial intelligence and robotics.

All of this demonstrates how the pursuit of cheap labour can lead to manipulated social agendas, ultimately undermining the well-being of ordinary people and the middle class. As we consider the role of corporations in our society, it's crucial to remember the importance of balance and the need to safeguard the interests of all members of society, not just the interests of those at the top.