Excerpt from May 1998 Monthly Review article by Daniel Singer:
WHY WE NEED A NEW MANIFESTO
---------------------------
First we must deal with the problem of the allegedly vanishing work. We
are living in a society in which our technological genius, translated
into higher productivity means either bigger unemployment or greater
polarization with the so-called working poor. Marx's suggestion that
"the theft of somebody else's labor time" is a miserable foundation to
calculate our wealth-which we should measure by disposable time not by
labor time-is so much truer today than it was 150 years ago. We have the
technological means to live differently. If output were determined not
by exchange value, or the weight of your purse, but by social need
democratically decided by the people, we could keep growth within
ecologically tolerable limits, eliminate unemployment and reduce the
working week. Indeed, in the advanced capitalist countries, we could
start reducing heavy, dangerous and dreary work, thus gradually removing
the frontier between labor and leisure.
regards,
Tom Walker
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/worksite.htm
