Which way is really progress?
I am excited these days that leading economists, policy and political analysts are seeing the connection between advancing technology, job loss and solutions to the crisis of capitalism. Recent writers have argued for a BIG (Basic Income Grant) argued for from as far back as the 1970’s by such riveting economists as Milton Friedman and even Martin Luther King, Jr, when discussing solutions for poverty in a nation of such plenty.
While I don’t completely agree with the conclusions as I think nothing less than a complete transformation of our political system is needed, I think their writings are critical additions to the ongoing discourse around solutions for chronic, unresolvable unemployment and rising poverty, not just here but around the globe. Technology makes it possible to export jobs around the globe as capital searches for the cheapest labor possible under political conditions with limited or no restraints to their dangerous and horrific employment practices.
If we have the capacity to produce with increasingly less and less human labor, what is the recourse for people? How do we compete with computers and technology that can produce 24 hours/ 7 days without pay, breaks or sickness…except the occasional mechanical breakdowns. But more than that, how can the economy ever recover when people earn less and less or nothing at all? How do we contribute to the cycle of production and purchasing of the necessaries we need in order to be a part of that process? So, this is the crisis facing capitalism. Unlike what most folks think, capitalism won’t just disappear as folks attempt to create alternative realities, although, they do open a window on other possibilities. There will need to be a political fight about who will rule, who will lead this transformation.
The other side is that no matter how much the working class demands, agitates, marches for and sits in for reforms, these demands for reform are increasingly less likely to come from the ruling class unless it is accompanied with a genuine independent political demand from a real organization or party that has the wherewithal to press forward those demands in a popular, encompassing way.
If the demand for BIG or a Financial Transaction Tax (Robin Hood Tax) or a Single payer healthcare system are all demands for reform that people need and are willing to fight for, then I think we have to begin to figure out how we get all those demands into one independent, organizational formation. The ruling class relies on our disparate, separate little organizations that ensures they will continue to rule with very little challenge to their rule.
I may have a glint in my eye but that glint is the shining promise of society that puts human needs before corporate greed!!
Mama Sheilah