Eugene Coyle wrote: > The left must think more deeply than simply aiming for "full employment" > resulting from more public or private consumption. We can have full > employment, i.e. a job for those that want a job, at the current level of > public and private consumption. We can, and should, and must, reduce the > work week to this end. With climate change, and run-away climate change at > that, already looming as a human and environmental catastrophe, having as the > left's goal the consumption of more stuff is pathetic.<
Nice slogans! But one of the great things (from a capitalist point of view) about secularly rising inequality and then a severe recession with a horrible and persistent aftermath is that it (like the prospect of being hanged) concentrates the minds of workers of all types on surviving, i.e., getting a job, or keeping the one that they already have, even if it's subject to speed-up, wage cuts, and stretch-out. It's hard to be concerned with climate change if you can't feed your family or pay your bills. It's hard to be in favor of reducing the work week (even if this is promised to be done without a cut in weekly pay) if organized labor is on the ropes or fighting defensive battles against the Governor Walkers of the world. In fact, with the current balance of political-economic power in the US, a cut in the work-week almost automatically means that a cut in weekly pay, perhaps even a cut in hourly pay. In this kind of situation, the question that most people will address (outside of utopian speculation, which seems rare these cynical days outside of the Austerian set) is "do we let the economy continue to stagnate with a horrible job situation (perhaps making it worse by balancing the Federal budget) or do we engage in some kind of Keynesian fiscal stimulus?" In the best situation, the latter stimulus would be "green" in orientation, aimed at reducing carbon emissions. But I doubt that anyone will see cutting the work week as the solution. Sure Germany has work-sharing, but they also have a significantly stronger social-democratic tradition than the US does. Maybe "shorten the workweek" (without a cut in weekly pay) is a non-reformist reform or part of a transitional program, aimed at waking up labor and strengthening its side of the balance of power and even moving us toward socialism? what kinds of organizations are ready to take up this slogan and to propagate it? -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
