> The Economic Horror by Viviane Forrester > > > "Full employment is a thing of the past" > > > "...there is something worse than actually being exploited - > and that is no longer to be even worth exploiting!" > > > "Today the great thing is to be "profitable", not "useful". > This raises a very serious question: Should people be > profitable in order to "deserve" the right to live?" > > > >Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 05:42:07 -0800 (PST) >From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: full UNEMPLOYMENT - the globalization of poverty > > > >The Economic Horror >by Viviane Forrester >(pub 1999 by Blackwell ) ISBN 0-745-61994-0 > >http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745619940/thejobsresearctr > > >VIVIANE FORRESTER >ON A PROFOUND CHANGE >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >* I think that each of us, whatever our walk of life, should feel concerned >about the present state of the world, which is entirely governed by >economics. If Shakespeare were to come back to life today, I think he would >be fascinated by the tragic interplay of powerful economic forces which are >stealthily transforming the lives and destinies of the citizens - or rather >the populations - of all countries. > >* To my mind we are witnessing a profound change, a transformation of >society and civilization, and we are finding it very hard to accept. How >can we say good-bye to a society that was based on stable jobs that >provided a safety net and the basics of a decent existence? Job security is >on the way out. > >For the first time in history, the vast majority of human beings are no >longer indispensable to the small number of those who run the world >economy. The economy is increasingly wrapped up in pure speculation. The >working masses and their cost are becoming superfluous. In other words, >there is something worse than actually being exploited - and that is no >longer to be even worth exploiting! > >* It is true that this state of affairs is not being concealed, but there >is a tendency to avoid talking about it clearly. In democratic societies, >at any rate, you don't tell people that they are regarded as superfluous. >Under totalitarianism there might be an even worse danger than joblessness >and poverty. Once salaried work has disappeared, why should a totalitarian >regime not simply eliminate those forces that have become useless? > >In democratic countries there is an urgent need for vigilance. It is often >claimed that the industrial age, when a regular wage provided the means of >subsistence, can somehow be patched up. But those days are over. >Wage-earning is disappearing and the panoply of temporary doles and >allowances designed to replace it is shrinking, something that is nothing >less than criminal. > >* The managers of the economic machine exploit this situation. Full >employment is a thing of the past, but we still use criteria that were >current in the nineteenth century, or twenty or thirty years ago, when it >still existed. Among other things, this encourages many unemployed people >to feel ashamed of themselves. This shame has always been absurd but it is >even more so today. > >It goes hand in hand with the fear felt by the privileged who still have a >paid job and are afraid of losing it. I maintain that this shame and this >fear ought to be quoted on the stock exchange, because they are major >inputs in profit. Once upon a time people pilloried the alienation caused >by work. Today falling labour costs contribute to the profits of big >companies, whose favourite management tool is sacking workers; when they do >this, their stock market value soars. > >* Today we hear a lot about "wealth creation". In the past it was simply >known as profit. Today people talk about this wealth as if it will >automatically go straight to the community and create jobs, yet at the same >time we see highly profitable businesses cutting down heavily on their >workforce. > >When people talk about society's "movers and shakers", they aren't talking >about the bulk of their country's population but about business leaders who >relocate at the drop of a hat. Politicians make jobs their priority, but >the Stock Exchange is delighted whenever a big industrial complex fires >workers and gets worried whenever there's the slightest improvement in the >unemployment figures. I wanted to draw people's attention to this paradox. >A company's stock market quotation depends largely on labour costs, and >profit is generated in the last analysis by reducing the numbers of those >who have a job. > >* The present situation raises a vital question for the future of the >people of our planet, above all for young people and their future. Today >the great thing is to be "profitable", not "useful". This raises a very >serious question: Should people be profitable in order to "deserve" the >right to live? The commonsense answer is that it is a good thing to be >useful to society. But we are preventing people from being useful, we are >squandering the energies of young people by regarding profitability as the >be-all and end-all. > >* Most countries have lost their sense of priorities. There is a greater >and greater need for teachers and medical staff, but governments are >increasingly aggressive towards them. These are the professions where posts >are abolished and funding is cut. Yet they are indispensable to the welfare >and future of humanity. This confusion between "usefulness" and >"profitability" is disastrous for the future of the planet. > >Young people live in a society which still regards salaried employment as >the only acceptable, honest and lawful way of life, but most of them are >deprived of the opportunity to achieve this. In deprived inner city areas >this is a major problem. > >At the same time I often meet young people with armfuls of degrees who are >out of work. What inexcusable waste! For generations study was young >people's initiation into social life. I admire young people today because >they go on with their studies fully aware that they are running the risk of >rejection by society. > >* Only twenty or thirty years ago, there was still reason to hope that the >relative prosperity of the North would spread all over the world. Today we >are seeing the globalization of poverty. Businesses based in the North that >set up in the so-called "developing" countries, do not create jobs for the >people of those countries but generally make them work without any kind of >social security protection, in medieval conditions. The reason is that the >workforce - underpaid women and children, as well as prisoners - costs less >than automation would cost in the country of origin. This is colonization >in another, equally heinous, form. > >* I am not pessimistic, far from it. The pessimists are those who say there >is no alternative to the present situation, that we have no choice. My book >is an attempt to describe what is going on. It's true that the situation is >dramatic. All the same I am, like many other people, the citizen of a >country whose democratic regime makes it possible to reflect and freely >resist the growing pressure that the economic factor is exerting on our >lives. > >* I would like there to be checks and balances, alternative thinking, >conflicts of ideas and interests. Not violent conflict, of course, but we >should wake up and stop being petrified, prisoners of hackneyed thinking. >Already in countries where my book is being translated-especially in the >United States, Brazil, Mexico, Lithuania, Poland and in others such as the >Republic of Korea - it is causing something of a stir even before >publication. > >I am neither against the globalization of exchanges, nor the emergence of >new technologies. Such an attitude would be absurd. But I am against their >being taken over by a tiny minority of economic power centres, often in >private hands, whereas entire populations are excluded from social >progress. I am against the globalization of rejection and poverty and for >the globalization of well-being. > >The Economic Horror >by Viviane Forrester >(pub 1999 by Blackwell ) ISBN 0-745-61994-0 > > > > ............................................. > Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ............................................. >
