All four of the videos were interesting. The Noam Chomsky video, “Why Marijuana is Illegal and Tobacco is Legal” is a hot topic in which I am sure will get a lot of feedback. I can relate most to the “Ethical Dilemmas in the workplace: The Ethics Guy on ABC News” video because part of my job is resume building and interview prep. He was spot on about being truthful, yet focusing what you can contribute NOW with the current business. This is in a nutshell, what I always tell our clients when we are mock-interviewing. Peter Singer’s “Drowning Child” video really puts things into perspective, I think.
It was Noam Chomsky’s “The Alternative to Capitalism” video that stood out to me, because I actually very much disagree with a statement he made when comparing wage labor to slavery. Chomsky stated, ” …wage labor, you are renting yourself, which is not very different from being a slave…” I’m not quite sure I see how that even comes CLOSE in comparison. With wage labor, yes you are essentially renting yourself, but you have free will to accept or refuse a job, to seek alternative employment, negotiate your wage….the list goes on. Even with some private business owners, you can say that they are renting themselves, especially when referring to the service industry. For example, my mother does not work a wage labor job. She is self-employed and offers a service. You could say that she is renting herself because she is receiving compensation for the services she renders. However, she is the one who determines the rate, with whom she does business with, etc. She makes ALL of the decisions. I would be interested to hear why he compares wage labor with slavery, because it just makes no sense to me whatsoever.