Loyalty

 Imagine playing in an orchestra for 20 years giving the position your heart and your soul. Each day improving and practicing pieces for hours. Dedicating not yourself to your instrument but your instrument to this ensemble only to never move up. A baseless loyalty to a group that dismisses you, it seems foolish yet this is common for many. Although in most cases one might not be dedicating their lives to an ensemble, a company is a much more common story. In Sweat the floor workers that we see such as Tracey, Jason, and Jesse are continually loyal to Oldstead working with them for decades. In some cases, they have been working for them for generations as a familial loyalty to the company.  Despite their unending loyalty their position has not changed in the company, rather, the only thing to change about their position is whether they keep it or not. Oldstead takes no issue in releasing their longest standing workers in the pursuit of cheaper labor and further profits. The floor workers dedicate their loyalty to a strong group of wealthy higher ups who will see no issue in cutting their wages for personal benefit. These higher ups continue to take from the weak, their money, jobs, wages, and labor, all for their own benefit. It is a tale as old as time of the strong taking from the weak. And as the weak bear witness to how misplaced their loyalty was through the actions of the strong, they are left with nothing to their name but decades put to waste and unending regret. They are taken to be fools who's backs are the foundations of society. Their lives are spent eternally toiling until death only for the fruits of their labor to be enjoyed by another. Despite it being a tragic tale it still as old as time: the strong take from the weak.