Gustave Caillebotte - The Floor Scrapers, 1875.

When I first saw this picture on Facebook, my back ached just thinking about it. I can't imagine how exhausting this work must have been, but it got me thinking when someone shared a gif on Facebook of money being thrown away.

This image depicts three men scraping the floor in a single room. I'm not sure if this is an accurate portrait, but three men are employed as opposed to one man with a machine. Whether floors are scraped in the modern world or not, we understand that machinery has drastically reduced our labour force, but it hasn't reduced the owners' profits, but rather increased them. "Poverty exists not because we can't feed the poor, but because we can't satisfy the rich," this statement could not be more accurate.

I'm sure some wealthy people would disagree with this statement, and that's their right; everyone is entitled to their own opinion. In my opinion, if machinery were removed from the equation, employment would increase. Profits would have to be shared in order to keep employees, and the company would have to expand from a three-man cabinet shop to a twenty-man crew. Skill would return, and thus the quality of workmanship would return as well. Quality tools would be in high demand, spawning a slew of new toolmakers who would compete fiercely with one another. Consider the old Stanley days, when their tools were made to far higher standards than they are now. Overall, people would be wealthier and healthier, and the government's coffers would be brimming with revenue from their taxes. To me, it appears to be a win-win situation.

However, I am concerned that the government, which is made up of ordinary sods, is nothing more than a set of puppets for corporations. Corporations, I believe, are vehemently opposed to this idea because they would rather reintroduce slavery and buggery to human lives than offer something beneficial.

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