Survival of the Fittest in the American Jungle

Sinclair and PETA - I could post a video of a celebrity showing the practices of corporations in their bid to produce maximum profit at minimal expenditure, but like the images expressed in The Jungle, they are difficult to take. Of course, the novel extends beyond the cruelty to animals. Sinclair uses the animals as a parallel to highlight the exploitation of the worker and the futility in trying to capture the American Dream. However, although the dynamics of Sinclair's novel were published during a period of limited media coverage, they still resonate as loudly today as during Sinclair's lifetime.
The early 1900s saw waves of immigrants who came with hope and innocence, both of which were systematically destroyed during a desperate struggle to survive. However, where are the safeguards one hundred years later that prevent this mercenary approach to the workforce that is the backbone of any corporation? True, there are child labor laws to protect the children; there are minimum wage laws to "guarantee" a supposed living wage; there is OSHA to watch out for violations that endanger the life and health of workers. However, the reality is that backroom deals are still made, there are ways to skirt the laws, such as paying under the table, there are expensive court fights that take too much time and money for the average worker to prove his case. So, as miners die in explosions, farm workers drop dead in strawberry fields from the exposure to lethal pesticides, and government bailouts protect the companies that are "too big to fail" while the homeowner is forced to abandon an upside down mortgage, one wonders what loyalty is owed to the Kings of the Jungle, the Captains of Industry? Is Sinclair correct when he points suggests that these problems are endemic and inherent in a capitalistic society. Sadly, although there are companies with a conscience, who treat employees well, until the American public is willing to stand up and use its power both in the voting booth and the boycott of products that exploit animals and workers, Sinclair will be as relevant in the next hundred years as he is today.
I am also reminded of one of my favorite short stories, "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison. Although the point of this "new wave" science fiction is to alert society to the dangers of technology, it is also a warning of the exploitation of the worker in the name of efficiency and profit. The opening of the story really says it all, and I feel no need to elaborate with commentary, since its clarity and poetry suffice.

          The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly,
         but as machines, with their bodies. Others--as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers,
         and office-holders--serve the state chiefly with their heads;
         and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as
         likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God.
         A very few--as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the
         great sense, and men ---serve the state with their consciences
         also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and
         they are commonly treated as enemies by it.