Tim Bray might be an "XML Heavy," but he's obviously never set foot on a farm. He throws around the word "sharecropper" as if there's a stigma attached to it, when in reality sharecropping is a way of life for some people, just the same as working an assembly line or in the mines is a way of life for others.
My wife's family owns a 600-acre farm in southern Illinois. We have a sharecropping family that has farmed the land for over three generations. They have lived rent-free, all utilities and taxes paid, during this entire time. They are paid a fair wage in addition to bonuses from the farm's profits. College, if they choose to attend, is paid for. Their income, once the fringe benefits are added back, is probably greater than the average income for all professions in the St. Louis area. I can say for a fact their income is higher than most unemployed IT workers, and there has never been a layoff since the early 1800's.
I believe Mr. Bray was trying to be politically correct by using the term "sharecropper" when he really meant "indentured servant." Let's face it: Anybody who works for somebody is an indentured servant, especially if you are tied to said employer for necessities in life such as health insurance. Unless you have the good fortune to be in perfect health and can secure your own health insurance, you are, in fact, indentured to your employer if you depend on their group status for insurance.
You're paying them. That makes them your employees (with a progressive profit-sharing plan). If they were sharecroppers they'd pay you (with some fraction of the crop they harvest) in return for use of the land.
They are definitely not employees, as we provide no defined benefits. Instead, they work the farm, and pay us a fixed percentage of the farm's income. It's a common arrangement, at least here in the US. Rules concerning farm employment are very different from non-farm employment.
I was trying to simplify things by drawing an analogy to something familiar to most people. Their "wages" are the earnings they retain. They're not true wages in the sense of a paycheck.
That's all fine and dandy for your wife's folks's sharecroppers until your wife's family decides to change the farm into golf courses and subdivisions. Then, of course, the 'croppers are fscked. Benevolent paternalism always looks like a good thing to those whose well being does not depend on it. To the sharecroppers, it may well seem to be a velvet leash.
To paraphrase Tom Jode (I think), a communist is someone who wants thirty cents a day when they're paying twenty-five.
Unix is the worst operating system; except for all others.
-- Berry Kercheval
In defense of sharecropping (Score:5, Informative)
My wife's family owns a 600-acre farm in southern Illinois. We have a sharecropping family that has farmed the land for over three generations. They have lived rent-free, all utilities and taxes paid, during this entire time. They are paid a fair wage in addition to bonuses from the farm's profits. College, if they choose to attend, is paid for. Their income, once the fringe benefits are added back, is probably greater than the average income for all professions in the St. Louis area. I can say for a fact their income is higher than most unemployed IT workers, and there has never been a layoff since the early 1800's.
I believe Mr. Bray was trying to be politically correct by using the term "sharecropper" when he really meant "indentured servant." Let's face it: Anybody who works for somebody is an indentured servant, especially if you are tied to said employer for necessities in life such as health insurance. Unless you have the good fortune to be in perfect health and can secure your own health insurance, you are, in fact, indentured to your employer if you depend on their group status for insurance.
Re:In defense of sharecropping (Score:0)
Re:In defense of sharecropping (Score:2)
Re:In defense of sharecropping (Score:0)
Re:In defense of sharecropping (Score:1)
Re:In defense of sharecropping (Score:0)
To paraphrase Tom Jode (I think), a communist is someone who wants thirty cents a day when they're paying twenty-five.