The Changing Meaning of ‘Work’ – And the Idea of ‘Boss Man’

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Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?

“Big Boss Man,” an old song by blues legend Jimmy Reed, still packs a potent political punch for today’s working class:

You got me workin’, boss man, working ’round the clock
I wanna little drink of water, but you won’t let Jimmy stop
Big boss man, can’t you hear me when I call?

But then, Reed urges workers to see how small the boss man really is:

Well, you ain’t so big, you just tall that’s all.
Well, I’m gonna get me a boss man, one gonna treat me right
Work hard in the day time, rest easy at night.

That could be the anthem of millions of Americans today, who are rebelling against soulless corporate jobs and layers of bosses demanding longer hours doing tedious tasks. These workplace uprisings are not about another dollar a day, rather the idea of work itself is being confronted.

People are realizing that their time, energy and their very lives are being consumed a day at a time to profit faraway Big Boss Men. It’s also dawning on more and more workers that their jobs are pointless — generating paperwork that no one sees, babysitting computer systems, making electronic downloads that are silly, etc.

Thus, large numbers of workers are saying: Who needs it? Is this my “life?”? What’s the point? My “job” could — poof! — disappear tomorrow, and it wouldn’t matter. How am I to take any pride or find a smidgeon of personal fulfillment in surrendering the biggest chunks of my life to that?

This is Jim Hightower saying… Big Billionaire Bosses like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos bark that it’s time for employees to double down on the “work ethic” — yet there’s no ethical core to the work they demand. Bosses don’t get it, but what’s happening today is not merely a labor rebellion but a revolution for humanity to be valued for itself… and for workers to become their own bosses.

Republicans Discover a Big Flaw in Tim Walz: He’s Not Rich!

Here’s a hard-right political twist I wasn’t expecting, and Tim Walz is probably surprised, too.

Within the confines of Trump’s MAGAworld, some are appalled by Walz’s wealth. Wealth? They’re claiming this former high school teacher is rich? No… and that bothers them.

Walz gets a gubernatorial paycheck and a modest public pension. That’s it. No portfolio of Wall Street stocks, no deferred payouts on corporate bonuses, and he doesn’t even own a house, much less a vacation home. While this pegs him as a regular middle-class American, it seems to put off a covey of moneyed Trumpsters who see his lack of riches as a personal weakness.

The Wall Street Journal recently featured one such partisan, who says he prefers “a high net worth” politician, like JD Vance. Being rich, explained the partisan, means a candidate “has financial acumen, business and investment savvy.” Righto! For example, Vance was savvy enough to kiss-up to right-wing Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who has pumped millions into the fictional “hillbilly,” turning Vance into a pretentious “hillwilliam.” And please stop pretending that rich candidates are less corrupt since they aren’t dependent on special-interest funding. Trump himself put the lie to that when he recently begged a Big Oil group to give a billion dollars to his campaign — in exchange for his promise to slash their taxes.

This is Jim Hightower saying … Most bizarre is the assertion by Walz critics that his failure to be invested in Wall Street stocks means he’s out of touch with the financial concerns of “the average American.” Hello, nearly all stocks are owned by the superrich, like Trump and Vance. In fact, the average American family owns zero stocks — just like Walz.

Jim Hightower
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