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Exploitation Disguised As Opportunity In Modern Work

Exploitation Disguised As Opportunity In Modern Work

Last updated on: May 18, 2026 at 1:17 am by Henry Karlson

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Exploitation Disguised As Opportunity In Modern Work 2026-05-18T01:17:16-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Work can easily become exploitive if we ignore the dignity of the human person. Photo: The International Institute for Environment and Development: Artisanal cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo / Wikimedia Commons

The dignity of work comes from, and must never be separated and made independent from, the dignity of the worker. If a worker’s dignity is undermined, or if it is utterly denied, and they are told they can only obtain it by work, they are being exploited. I see this happening often enough when the social safety net is removed and the poor are denied their basic needs. The poor are told they must work and find their needs supplied to them by their employers all the while their employers deny them living wages; in the end, they are denied by society, and by their employers, their basic necessities, such as food, shelter, clothing, health care, and possibly even their own freedom. Work does not make someone free, work does not give someone their dignity; every person has an inherent dignity, one which also gives them their freedom. Their freedom is what allows them to enhance themselves, to make something which produces a positive change in the world (and with themselves); thus, while work might enhance them, it doesn’t give them their inherent value. Our work, our labor, is connected to the way we reflect the image of God in us by becoming sub-creators. And just as we know God through God’s actions, and what we learn through God’s actions are what we use to glorify God, so we know others and honor them by what they do. Nonetheless, God’s glory, God’s goodness, transcends creation, as it is eternal and not something which was established by creation; likewise, our dignity transcends our work and is not established by it. This is the hermeneutical key we need to give a proper reading to St. John Paul II when he said:

Work is a good thing for man-a good thing for his humanity-because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfilment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes “more a human being”.[1]

Creation is good because it was created and given its good by God. By observing creation, by seeing the good behind it, we can learn about our Creator. We take the good which was given to us, and can make something more, something greater from it. This is what it means to be a sub-creator. And when we do so, we also make something more out of ourselves; we grow and become something greater. It is not that we are born without any inherent dignity of our own and create it through our actions, such as our work; rather, we take what was given to us, and develop us, using our free will to do so; and so, we actualize our potential, thereby becoming “more a human being.” What we must not do is undermine anyone, such as poor workers, by acting as if the goodness of work is independent from the worker. It is as wrong to do that as it is to suggest the goodness of creation is independent from God. If the worker is denied their dignity, then the work they do will not be dignified; if the worker is denied their just wages – that is, the living wage they need to obtain basic food, shelter, and the health care, it is understandable they will not want to work. No matter how many employers and public authorities might try to say such a worker is lazy, the one who denies them their proper due are to blame, not the worker. Those in position of power and authority, those who create policies, and reinforce a system which undermines the inherent dignity of the worker and their just wages, will have to face the consequences of their actions:

Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing, and does not give him his wages; who says, `I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ and cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and painting it with vermilion (Jer. 22:13-14 RSV).

Sadly, I see, especially within the United States, many in power are using their authority to exploit workers more and more; they justify what they do by saying work is noble, and anyone who is graced with work should be thankful for the opportunity given to them, even if it is an opportunity to be exploited! In response to this I say that this ideology is wrong, the system what perpetuates it is sinful, because it separates the nobility and dignity of work from the worker; it implies that work is in and of itself an independent good, allowing the system itself to become totally opposite of a healthy system, because it ends up saying the worker is made noble only through work, that they have no inherent dignity, only work does! Once this is accepted, the unjustifiable is justified, as the exploitation of the poor, the sick, the infirm, and the oppressed, is done in and through the way the work they are forced to do make them good. So long as they do not have work, they are denied their human dignity, and as they are denied their human dignity, the job opportunities available to them, if any, are going to be exploitive in nature. They are not given living wages; they are told, if they get work, they should be happy, no matter how exploitive it is, even if they do not earn enough to survive. While this ideology has already had terrible consequences in the past, I see, as it is becoming reinforced, it will make things even worse in the immediate future. At first, workers in many fields, or workers starting their career with an entry-level position, were told they did not qualify for living wage but they were still given a minimum wage; then, the notion of minimum wages itself was questioned, and ways were found to get around it, such as the notion of an “unpaid internships.” Now, the next level of exploitation is slowly coming upon us, where the worker is being told, if they want a job, they will have to pay their would-be employer to justify receiving it! How is a person without money going to get a job in such a situation? And, when society at large says a person who does not work does not deserve to live, which is, in effect, what work requirements for various elements of the social safety net (SNAP, health care, et. al.) tells workers, we see the system for what it is, a system of slavery, one which denies the human person their inherent dignity, a system which is corrupted and must be resisted, reformed, and replaced with a system that remembers the dignity of the human person and does not have their dignity based upon their work.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns; you shall give him his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun goes down (for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it); lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin in you. (Deut. 24:14-15 RSV).

The Lord will hear the cries of the poor and the oppressed. Those who exploit those in need, those who deny the poor their inherent goodness, those who seek to enslave them and would have them die if they do not accept such slavery, cannot justify themselves by pointing to God and saying it is what God wants. God has made it clear that workers must be treated with respect; workers must be given living wages (which, to be sure, will be contextual, that is, dependent upon what is needed at a particular time and). This is why I find the rhetoric of many who claim to be God-fearing Christians (or God-fearing Jews, or God-fearing Muslims), who will point to God, but deny what God expects from them, to be quite troubling, because that rhetoric tries to use God to justify the degradation of the laborer, and in doing so, ends up degrading God in the minds of countless people (leading some to question the existence of God because their vision of God is based upon that rhetoric). Their ideology serves to undermine the inherent goodness of God, for if we take the way they say work justifies and makes someone good and use it to reflect upon God, we must conclude that creation is the source of God’s goodness instead of God being the source of the goodness of creation, which of course, is utterly wrong.

[1] Pope St. John Paul II, Laborem Exercens. Vatican translation. ¶9.

* This Is Another Post From My Personal (Informal) Reflections And Speculations Series

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