What Do Workers Have to Do With It?

Today I thought about all the people that are in place to serve me and keep my life going. How often I forget about the chain of laborers that work behind the scenes to make my life easier, and manageable. Take for example, the simple act of going to the grocery store to buy bananas. Where did these bananas come from? Who grew them? Were they paid a living wage (wherever they were) to grow them? And how did they end up in MY grocery store? How were they transported? Airplane, and then truck, train???? How many people were involved in that step? Were they paid enough money for their efforts? And who unboxed them and put them out for display after checking them to see that they were o.k. to sell? Were they paid well enough? And the checkout person, and baggers; how about them? I wonder; if I added up the total cost of getting that one bunch of bananas to me, what would it be? Today, in America, we are challenged with many problems. One of those problems is people who are not getting enough money to live well enough. There are no easy solutions, and everyone these days has a different opinion about what to do. I do not have a solution either. I just want us not to forget that many of these people are the very ones that serve us and help keep our lives going. This is not a new idea, and actually, I thought about it after reading an excerpt from a quite famous author who I now cannot remember (perhaps Yeats) who said,
"The woollen coat, for example, which covers the day-labourer, as course and rough as it may appear, is the product of the joint labour of a multitude of workmen. The shepherd, the sorter of the wool, the wool comber or carder, the dyer, the scribbler, the spinner, the weaver, the fuller, the dresser, with many others must all join different arts in order to complete even this homely production......without the assistance and co-operation of many thousands, the very meanest person in a civilized country could not be provided;, even according to what we very falsely imagine, the easy and simple manner in which he is commonly accommodated.