Workers-Control-Over-Prod
29th May 2012, 14:19
I just skimmed through a book at the store about the "Emotional Qutient" and it showed some very significant worrying social points that I think can only be explained by a Marxist analysis.
The book gives statistics that teen pregnancies have become exponentially more frequent. A survey of teachers and psychologists showed teachers reporting a constantly degrading social condition of students. Teen use of hard drugs has multiplied three times for white students since the 1970's in the United States, while, for black students, hard drug use has multiplied thirteen tmes in the same time! Teachers reports a sweeping increase in nervousness, lethargy, attention problems, neediness, reclusiveness and obsession among their pupils in the last fourty years and increasingly so towards the turn of the century.
Why? Well, many people blame it on either from an idealistic basis (people just don't want to do well blabla) or on technology and the "breakup of the family". Now, idealistic arguments should not even be acknowledged as they are contrary to all material reality and in fact radically deny reality. Advanced means of communication and expanded possibilities of entertainment being the root of degrading social conditions is as well an idealistic argument which at first might not seem to be one but is; Human beings are the ones who use those advanced technological devices, human needs and wants decide over how to use them.
The "break up of the family" is a rather popular and widespread view on degrading social conditions. This is a highly interesting point. "The family" as the dominant social congregation is though a historical occurance of the of the capitalist society.
Now, Since the family has been the dominant form of social interaction of capitalist society, let us analyse its development and current state; In Capitalist society, institutions are ones that spurn individual wealth and not co-operation in the mode of production, which after all, the overwhelming majority of people's lives are spent working. Security in capitalist society has traditionally been concentrated at the home, in the family. Active laws have been written and enforced by the capitalist state, to protect generational wealth, "inheritance" low "property tax" etc.
Since the 1970's workers's wages in the US have been stagnating. The American working class is the most indebted in history, workers in the United States work more hours than any other one industrialized nations' working class. This is though not only an American problem, Japan's working class for instance is not as indebted (it's government carries that debt) as the US, but it's suicide rates are higher than it has ever been in its existence. As the author points out very well, technology has advanced to amazing degrees, advancing the productive forces. German workers' productivity has increased a whooping 34% in the last 18 years! But, workers are working the same time as they did in 1945.
Machines have replaced live labor with the advance of computer technology to such degrees that workers wages in the highly advanced capitalist countries have been stagnating since decades for capitalists to keep up profitability (Falling Rate of Profit). This means that while workers kept Producing exponentially more products for society, they got and are getting, increasingly less and less of what they make. The increasing profits of the capitalists and owning class were spent on advertisement to stimulate people to buy the increasing amounts of goods. Banks started giving out credit cards, to keep growing the stored capital on thE bank accounts of corporations, that every working person could use to buy stuff without having a high enough wage to afford it. Workers got mortgages from banks, they got loans, increasingly, throughout the last few decades. In 2008, that growing development plunged; millions of working people could not afford to pay back the rising interest rates with stagnant wages.
When the majority of western society, proletarians, cannot afford to buy the increasing amounts of goods they produce, they sent/d out their wives and children to earn more money to keep up with their material "wants", leading them to completely disregard their needs and the degrading social capitalist society. Capitalism is outgrowing itself, and it is Precisely the Advanced technology, productive forces and the ensuing Low Rate of Profit (stagnating workers' wages and increased productivity, inequality, "99%vs.1%") that is at the core of destroying the (miniscual) social structure of capitalism that people have had, the family.
The book gives statistics that teen pregnancies have become exponentially more frequent. A survey of teachers and psychologists showed teachers reporting a constantly degrading social condition of students. Teen use of hard drugs has multiplied three times for white students since the 1970's in the United States, while, for black students, hard drug use has multiplied thirteen tmes in the same time! Teachers reports a sweeping increase in nervousness, lethargy, attention problems, neediness, reclusiveness and obsession among their pupils in the last fourty years and increasingly so towards the turn of the century.
Why? Well, many people blame it on either from an idealistic basis (people just don't want to do well blabla) or on technology and the "breakup of the family". Now, idealistic arguments should not even be acknowledged as they are contrary to all material reality and in fact radically deny reality. Advanced means of communication and expanded possibilities of entertainment being the root of degrading social conditions is as well an idealistic argument which at first might not seem to be one but is; Human beings are the ones who use those advanced technological devices, human needs and wants decide over how to use them.
The "break up of the family" is a rather popular and widespread view on degrading social conditions. This is a highly interesting point. "The family" as the dominant social congregation is though a historical occurance of the of the capitalist society.
Now, Since the family has been the dominant form of social interaction of capitalist society, let us analyse its development and current state; In Capitalist society, institutions are ones that spurn individual wealth and not co-operation in the mode of production, which after all, the overwhelming majority of people's lives are spent working. Security in capitalist society has traditionally been concentrated at the home, in the family. Active laws have been written and enforced by the capitalist state, to protect generational wealth, "inheritance" low "property tax" etc.
Since the 1970's workers's wages in the US have been stagnating. The American working class is the most indebted in history, workers in the United States work more hours than any other one industrialized nations' working class. This is though not only an American problem, Japan's working class for instance is not as indebted (it's government carries that debt) as the US, but it's suicide rates are higher than it has ever been in its existence. As the author points out very well, technology has advanced to amazing degrees, advancing the productive forces. German workers' productivity has increased a whooping 34% in the last 18 years! But, workers are working the same time as they did in 1945.
Machines have replaced live labor with the advance of computer technology to such degrees that workers wages in the highly advanced capitalist countries have been stagnating since decades for capitalists to keep up profitability (Falling Rate of Profit). This means that while workers kept Producing exponentially more products for society, they got and are getting, increasingly less and less of what they make. The increasing profits of the capitalists and owning class were spent on advertisement to stimulate people to buy the increasing amounts of goods. Banks started giving out credit cards, to keep growing the stored capital on thE bank accounts of corporations, that every working person could use to buy stuff without having a high enough wage to afford it. Workers got mortgages from banks, they got loans, increasingly, throughout the last few decades. In 2008, that growing development plunged; millions of working people could not afford to pay back the rising interest rates with stagnant wages.
When the majority of western society, proletarians, cannot afford to buy the increasing amounts of goods they produce, they sent/d out their wives and children to earn more money to keep up with their material "wants", leading them to completely disregard their needs and the degrading social capitalist society. Capitalism is outgrowing itself, and it is Precisely the Advanced technology, productive forces and the ensuing Low Rate of Profit (stagnating workers' wages and increased productivity, inequality, "99%vs.1%") that is at the core of destroying the (miniscual) social structure of capitalism that people have had, the family.