How far have we come over the last one hundred and fifty years when it comes to work and life?

It’s a big question and I think one has to put perspective on it too.

Victorian Britain saw rich business types, mostly men, lording it  over the  population and influencing government and the same can be said for today. The only major differences are that today the massive profits stay in the upper levels of society and very little is given back to the people and government representatives are paid handsomely for their time.

We may have more things and have more choices today but the reality is that many people and families face similar problems that our Victorian forebears had to deal with as those choices and things cost us dear and are a necessity today.

Jobs are hard to come by and for most of us the employer exploits this. I would bet my bottom dollar that most people who work towards the lower end of the food-chain and have experienced work over the last thirty years or more will be seeing a similar story with those in almost every job.

The employer demands a third more output for very little extra gain. Once the little perks and incentives have been chipped away and the costs of getting to work have risen then the actual net income is probably not much more than it was ten years ago.

Yet the Chief Executives have seen massive increases with eye-watering salaries and bonuses. Who do they think they are? Most of these soft-bellied business types couldn’t even do half the tasks that they expect their minions to do and their annual wages wouldn’t cover the wine bill for the fat-cat for a week.

Society may have been very unfair for the Victorians but the Chiefs of industry did put something back. They built beautiful municipal buildings and created huge parks and open spaces for the unwashed to enjoy. They built an affordable railway envied throughout the globe. They Built houses and villages for the workers, who toiled in the factories, to live in and they are just a few examples. What have the Big boys given us today? A crippled and costly railway laughed at throughout the globe, dwindling open spaces, roads unfit for tractors let alone cars, a health system that is broken and national debts beyond comprehension.

Okay there were slums and a lack of education (ummm, some may say “don’t we see this in some of our bigger cities today, what with all the homeless, feral kids and broken schools”?) Incomes were pitiful and health was poor.

However, with the rise of the Unions, Co-operatives, Compulsary Education, Better Health and the development of these slums then life did get better.

Twenty or thirty years ago double or triple an average income for one person would have bought a two or three bedroom house in most areas. Those same jobs today would have to be multiplied by ten or twelve to realise the same homes. Individual space is becoming ever more cramped and we are now being forced to live cheek-by-jowl in our ever growing towns and cities in homes that are poor quality, small and inefficient.  The rich don’t care as they either live abroad or buy up cheep piles in the countryside and then turn them into gin palaces for themselves and their tacky mates.

Everyone I meet and talk to relates the same story and I do find it difficult to imagine or find anyone who isn’t in this situation. There must be as our society cannot be full of doom-and-gloom members. What I am saying is “are there any people out there who honestly and truly love their jobs and lives to the full and have a healthy work-life balance”?

Surely all most of us want is to be paid a reasonable income and be expected to do eight hours work for eight hours pay. Not ten hours work squeezed into an eight hour day.

If the senior management wanted to see real efficiency brought into their companies and corporations then they would look inwards to the waste that “Middle-Management” creates and the billshit jobs that come from it. Put a request in for equipment or services and its worse than the army. The request bounces around about a dozen departments who all seem to answer a different way before it lands on the desk of where it should originally be placed. By which time, when the item does turn up,  it is redundant but can’t be sent back as it would cost too much so it’s thrown away as rubbish. Trying to get the basic tools to do the job well is almost impossible due to the cut-backs and parring down of essential funds. Oh but there is always enough to pay for a boozy fact-finding jolly abroad, or a bonus for just doing the job that they are paid for. It is disgusting and very sad that society seems utterly unable to do anything about the destruction of our very being.

Soon there will be no full or part-time jobs and a zero hour contract will be the only option for the masses and then the power and lust of the few in charge will have no bounds. You may laugh and snigger but be warned.

Automation and Artificial Intelligence is on the rise and this in turn will mean fewer human jobs and the fight for what is left will get even harsher but just think how much more profit the shareholders and leaders in business will enjoy. It so warms my heart to image this.

We did learn from our mistakes and many of the issues were addressed for the good of all but sadly the last ten of fifteen years have seen all this washed away and what gains we did see for the better have been washed away and we are now back to suppression, oppression and exploitation.

These, once again, are my observations and opinions and they are not meant to be fact.