In one unique version of distraction from earthly problems, Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, will have himself taken into space July 20 aboard his own spacecraft, a short ride that would cost the average civilian about $3.2 million. He's the boss, so he rides free.

The hundreds of thousands of workers in his Amazon warehouses (fulfillment centers, as he calls them) likely will never make such a flight, because they are stuck “fulfilling” orders on assembly lines to nowhere. On the job, they are monitored incessantly and watched by cameras. Their productivity is measured by computerized systems that document much of their on-the-job lives. In essence, they are just cogs that Bezos fits them into wherever he wants them.

As in so much of modern industry, workers are subject to the constant surveillance of cameras and computers and Amazon is no different. The goal is to maximize profits and that means squeezing every last ounce of work out of every worker. It takes great effort to do that, all the while making the individual worker feel that the pressure is on and the work effort is being recorded someplace. For the most part, they are right.

While Bezos is getting an alien's eye view of earth in his spacecraft, Amazon workers are glued to their post on the assembly line, wondering if something they did during their shift will warrant a write-up for some unknown broken rule, leading to a possible discipline. It's why they are known to urinate in an empty soda bottle or some other receptacle, just to avoid leaving the work station. That's not unique to Amazon, but it's not a good place to be.

No matter that the starting pay is above most other companies in the vicinity of an Amazon warehouse, the problem is the work, itself. Drudgery might be the word to describe the work and the repetition of physical motion of a human body usually results in pain...in the back, wrists, arms, shoulders. After a while, a body gets used to some level of pain, especially if there is an effective medication available. But the physical pain is not the only thing. Working conditions at Amazon take a psychic toll, as well, and the longer one works in such conditions, the greater the psychic toll.

After a while, workers have to decide: is it worth the pay to continue to work under such conditions, or is it more important to rescue one's sanity and well-being by quitting? For so many, the job is one of the few available, such as in Bessemer, Alabama, and the necessities of life for the family is a major consideration. They'll stay, for the money and for the benefits, such as they are.

For Bezos, if he considers his workers at all, what does he do to try to curb turnover that is costing him money, training new workers every week. Even though it appears that he is concerned about the well-being of his workers, it is always about the bottom line. In that, he is like the robber barons of a century ago, when the condition of the workers came in dead last in calculating profit vs. the well-being of the workers. The billionaire would like to ignore the conditions of the workers at Amazon, but that time of blatant arrogance is waning and it doesn't play well with the general public, as if that matters in the case of a super monopoly like his. However, he must have heard of George Baer's statement on behalf of the coal bosses at the time of the 1902 anthracite strike in eastern Pennsylvania, as he testified before the government's Anthracite Coal Commission on the conditions of the coal miners: "These men don't suffer. Why, hell, half of them don't even speak English."

It's not likely that Bezos would go that far in speaking of his workers, but their treatment at Amazon has brought plenty of criticism by the workers and the public and has brought relentless efforts to organize unions at Amazon warehouses and facilities, the latest in Bessemer, Alabama, which failed. No wonder, since Bezos has hired some of the fastest guns in the anti-union industry, whenever a union has reared it's (for him) ugly head. He has beaten his workers in that regard every time.

He can approach unrest and high turnover in other ways and one most recent is to create a "Working Well" program, which is designed to offer frustrated workers a way to calm down after a day's toil. According to Truthout.org: "Amazon's WorkingWell program is just part of a much broader trend taking place throughout the corporate landscape encouraging workers to utilize activities such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness to reduce work-related stress and improve performance. Author and professor of management Ron Purser refer to this phenomenon as "McMindfulness," a co-opting of Buddhist spiritual traditions by corporations, schools, and even the military and police departments, in order to persuade and manipulate workers into conformity. This a stark departure from meditation as part of a spiritual practice which aims at knowledge of the mind and reality as an end in itself."

One big reason that Bezos and his counterparts in thousands of other corporations in the U.S. fight against unionization of their workers so viciously is that a union gives workers a voice in their work lives and, therefore, a voice in their lives, in general. A union in the workplace is the first step toward democracy in the body politic. There might not be any need for a “mindfulness program,” if workers negotiated a contract with the boss and could right so many of the wrongs that occur in a place driven by the seeking of more money and profit as an end goal and as the only goal.

If there are things wrong with the workplace and workers are being sickened (physically or mentally or emotionally), they can do something about it through their union. If they need more breaks to remind them that they are, indeed, human, they can do it collectively, through the union. Just about anything can be addressed through a union grievance procedure, whether it has to do with equipment or machinery, harassment (sexual or general), or sick leave, family leave, or child care. To a Jeff Bezos, however, all of this takes a layer off his profit and he won't have it. After all, you never can have too many billions.

And, why is he taking a ride in space aboard his own craft? For one reason, at least, to call attention to his own space program, the success of which could make him even richer. That is, with the mania to privatize all government functions, including the military, Bezos knows that privatizing the “Space Force” is the next reasonable thing. He is just trying to beat his competition to the punch.

Privatizing the “Space Force” will put trillions of dollars, not just billions, up for grabs. And, he wants a big part of it, maybe all of it. Perhaps, he will have a space office designed so he can supervise his trillion-dollar operation from that rarified, and thin, atmosphere, where he will have the best view of his minions on earth without having to deal with the nastiness of human activity and all of its very human relationships and needs.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Contact Mr. Funiciello and BC.