The above quotation, comes from the inestimable, Helen Keller. Most people are familiar, with Helen Keller, only as a strong and indomitable personality that overcame being both blind and deaf, who was able to in the early 20th century, earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, in an era in which females, were often not able to pursue their higher educational aspirations, and when those with handicaps, were often hidden away from the public view. Helen Keller wrote both important books and made insightful speeches throughout America, of which, lost somewhat in the annals of time, is who and what she really was; which was a strong voice for the oppressed, and specifically for those that labored diligently, and a voice that still needs to be heard and recognized, today.
In today's America, the governmental employment rate, looks to be quite good, but hidden behind those numbers, remains the fact that millions upon millions of Americans, need to work more than one job, to even have a hope of staying current on their bills; in addition to the fact, that millions of jobs that good, hard working Americans are employed at, do not on any level, pay a living wage. In point of fact, the vast majority of Americans, even those with advanced degrees, are often in a very poor negotiating position, in regards to their wages and working conditions, and subsequently have to accept pretty much whatever their prospective employer so dictates.
That is to say, because most private employers fully control the means of production, while also having the monetary resources which creates those businesses to begin with, this thus means that prospective employees typically are able to only bring to the negotiating table, their skill-set, but nothing much more, and therefore are a captive audience in regards to wages. So that, in effect, the wages so paid are the prevailing wages that the employer of such, will pay, though, in certain industries and communities, there are some exceptions to this general rule, and employees of such, are able to thereby have some say in regards to their working conditions and wages.
Corporations are strong institutions, for a lot of reasons, of which one of those reasons, is that they are often able to become enterprises which receive outside investment, whether through family members, consortiums of investors, or the general public, in which by that money, they are able to become a viable business, with enough capital and strength of personnel to handle the vicissitudes of the business world, competitors, and to grow. On the other hand, an individual person looking for employment is just one person, and in a contest in which one party has the power of money, prestige, infrastructure, and holds the reins upon those that desire employment, whereas the other party only has the desire to be employed, the party with the power, is in the far superior position, in every conceivable way.
This thus means that in the absence of, or the long continuation of the decline of strong and viable labor unions, that the few truly own the means of the livelihood for a significant swath of Americans; and if this government will not stand behind and support the people that need such, but rather in so many cases, aids and augments the privileged and well placed at the expense of the people, than those people are effectively not free, but owned by those that control their livelihood.