No Rest for the Productive Greater output per worker is good for business and the economy. Unfortunately, it also means the overworked just have to toil harder. *************
The economy is us. We produce it. The more we produce, the more Capital grows as a power over us. Capital does not and cannot exist without wage-labour.
*********
What happened to the technological utopia promised in the 1939 World's Fair? *****
Stolen by way of the wages-system.
**************
Visions of idle homemakers and endless vacations have dominated American culture since then, as futurists have predicted a world where technology completely eliminates the need to work. But where is Elektro, the 10-foot singing robot who was supposed to do all our housework, and Sparko, the talking dog? ********
There was a great issue of "Life" magazine from 1939, detailing all these promises for the future. I imagine that it sold a lot of issues because people really do want to be free of the drudgery of going in to work mostly at uselessly productive jobs everyday or sitting around waiting for the next unem check or pushing a shopping basket full of cans to the recycling center.
However, Capital doesn't work that way. Capital is not about leisure; it's about commodity production. And that takes labour-time.
********* Not to be found in most American households, that's for sure. Quite the opposite of that imagined future has come to be. Today, Americans work more hours than they did 20 years ago. Vacations have dwindled, and "overtime" isn't overtime anymore. It's the norm. ************
That's the way capitalism works. Productivity gains do not go into the pocket of the wage-slave, they accrue and accumulate in the capitalist's bank account. The more productive we become, the more superfluous we are, the more we contribute to the overpopulation of the planet.
We work because we are compelled to, because we need the money. The more we work, the less we enjoy our own lives. To be sure, we need to work more or risk losing our livlihoods. After all, our masters demand it.
It doesn't occur to us to organize as a class and change the balance of power. That would be greedy, not to mention, unrealistic.
Regards, Mike B)
Regards, Mike B)
===== ***************************************************************** “How would we live?” He kept asking this question. Of course, I wondered whether we were doing anything more than merely existing. I saw most of our work time as being superfluous. On the other hand, Fred’s need for things and creature comforts had grown too much to be sustained by any reduction in our income. Thus, spending our lives to obtain credits had become the norm.
from WAGE-SLAVE'S ESCAPE
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