Exploration of Capitalitsm In Norma Rae Essay -- Capitalism Economics

Exploration of Capitalitsm In Norma Rae While many of us tend to view capitalism as the ultimate goal when talking of profit capability and worker freedoms, we are shown a much different reality in the film "Norma Rae" in which the economic system comes under direct and harsh scrutiny. While the economic system on display in "Norma Rae" is a vast improvement from the impoverished feudal economic system shown in Matewan, there are still several improvements that can clearly be made to the O.P. Henry Textile Mill's definition of capitalism in this 1978 film based on actual events. The textile workers at the O.P. Henry Mill are used to struggle and adversity as both characterized thier employment in the factory and the hardships they had to face in their everyday lives. Many of the factory employees had been working in the mill for their entire lives, enduring the worker cruelty that the company dealt out with alarming regularity. However, many of the workers in the factory had little or no choice in seeking other employment, as the Textile Mill was the largest employer in the area, especially for unskilled laborers. While the employees were not forced to work in the factory, they stayed so as not to risk unemployment. This fear of unemployment was the mechanism that allowed the Textile Mill to push its workers to the limit. In this particular capitalist system on display in Norma Rae, the workers were the ones who had everything to lose. The workers had their livelihoods tied up in their jobs and would have to face the consequences if the company suffered economic difficulty, relocated, or had to downsize and make worker cutbacks. In this way, the workers' bargaining power with the company was weakened... ...a vote of 427 to 373. The negative capitailism that existed in the story of Norma Rae was modified to a much more worker-friendly type of capitalism in which worker concerns could be voiced and even answered without the fear of job termination while the company was still satisfied because it ws turning a profit. In this way, unions help to neutralize the potential for capital job markets to become dominated by an elite few and ingore the rights of laborers. Union helps secure the worker liberty of being able to compete for a position in a labor market rather than being forced to work in a poor working environment outof simple necessity. Unions provide workers with a valuable bargaining tool so that their rights will be protected in an ever changing and expanding profit-driven system, hopefully bringing the realization of capitalism closer to its intended state.