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View Full Version : The efficiency of white-collar, and revolution



redlost
19th November 2010, 16:58
Something that has always bothered me in regards to working on radical theory on contemporary standards is the absolute efficiency by which corporations, and other large buisness's, fulfill need. Clearly, the manner by which these processes are employed would have to be erased in a hypothetical leftist-revolution, but to what extent, and, should they be re-birthed, than how would it be enacted?

Obviously, there would be a much more focused output of nessecary items and, should soviets exist (which I find to be one of the most stellar theories of the left), there would be a much higher, and efficient, management of goods to meet the needs of all locals within the soviet jurisdiction.
But what of various minerals and vegetation, or, dare I say, petrol (Please sit back, vegetable-oil enthusiasts!)? These are choice nessecities, which simply cannot be managed on local levels. Though it only takes but an accountant to figure distribution levels, what of the people needed to assure efficiency, fairness, and, of course, it's shipping? Also, how would natural resources be accurately distributed internationally without a very large basis of white-collar workers in tandem?

Something that I am going to bring up which is very much debated/shut down is the apparent "ease" of white-collar, and exactly how that would effect the now-larger proletariat. Though indeed I am envisioning a united world with but one struggle (Unite!), there is still an obvious tandem between the man whom breaks his back loading freight at the docks, whom does so not by choice but by birth-location, and the man whom sits in office distributing numbers to have accurate means of plastic shipped to his soviet.

Worry not, this is not turning into a "So one guy won't do it, and everybody else won't." I care not for that garbage statement.

One thing that I have always considered heavily with contemporary revolution is a world very much enthused, and capable, of travel. Though indeed it makes no sense to train a man to be a mathmatician, fork-lift operator, fabric-sower, etc:, I don't think that would truly apply with a united, communist world. So, should one desire job-relocation/new hiring, I think the first thing to be established around the united soviets is a doctrine on the process by which one trades positions, how often they may, how long they must stay before switching, etc:.
Imagine wanting to return home after spending 20 years abroad doing whatever technical thing elsewhere. To return home, all you would need to do is simply sign up for any job near-by that is available.



But, still, I am not too sure on this matter. Something about the white-collar worker has always made me skeptical when it came to radical-theory. There is something venemous in it's title, and though I know of it's irrationality, I simply cannot disregard it. Hopefully some of you can shed some light on this matter for me.

La Peur Rouge
22nd November 2010, 01:29
Something that has always bothered me in regards to working on radical theory on contemporary standards is the absolute efficiency by which corporations, and other large buisness's, fulfill need.



- 925 million people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union

- 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths


I personally wouldn't consider corporations to be fulfilling need.

Jimmie Higgins
22nd November 2010, 08:48
Well first off, I agree that capitalism is not very good at meeting real needs and wants, but I get what you are getting at with the question. The issues you bring up will be very important for people to sort out - particularly in the immediate aftermath of revolutions. IMO it's an argument for why workers will need to form their own state - so the way I would imagine it would work is that local soviets would choose re-callable delegates or representatives from their ranks to participate in regional or industry-wide organizational bodies that could coordinate some of the larger tasks. Community soviets would collect information on what products they need and want and then that could be coordinated and accounted for in deciding how much to produce.

Coordinating jobs would also be a very important early task for workers. First of all, a huge chunk of positions could be immediately eliminated - telemarketers, middle management, salespeople, advertising people, etc. Some tasks could be changed while keeping the same skills - so weapons manufacturing plants could be turned into plants for producing construction equipment or subway cars or something. So decreasing the jobs that only existed for the needs of profit means that we could then quickly and drastically reduce hours for necessary jobs for everyone else and hire-on some of the newly unemployed.

I'd imagine that people would set up job centers (and housing centers) for people who are relocating or want to move into new fields. I think workers would have an interest in allowing people to move easily around and not being stuck in unfufilling tasks and so many jobs would probably be simplified and automated as much as possible while other things would maybe be rotated to reduce the unpleasantness. I also think people would want to immediately make education and skill-training widely available and free to everyone. So in this situation I can imagine that someone moves from one town to another region by contacting a housing placement organization in that region who could notify the individual about what's available and how quickly and then a job placement center could be contacted and help people locate a job - if there are no jobs in a particular field or area of skill or interest, then people could just pick up other kinds of work until they can finish classes and learn necessary skills for the field of their choice or new positions open up.

It might not be that different than temp agencies except rather than the agency being based on making profits and being contracted by other companies that want cheep labor without rights, the "temps" would be treated as full humans and when placed in a workplace they would be given the full pay and decision making power as their fellow workers. So wait, very different.

MarxSchmarx
23rd November 2010, 09:47
Michael Albert and Economist robin hahnel have sketched something that sort of gets at the problem you raise in their book, Parecon: life after capitalism. YOu can get a flavor of it on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_economics
As best I can gather there is no real evidence supporting or rejecting their view, even on smaller scales, through econometric massaging, or with models or some such. So for now it is really a pie in the sky idea but to their credit we have to start somewhere.