[lbo-talk] OWS Demands working group: jobs for all!

Mike Beggs mikejbeggs at gmail.com
Thu Oct 20 16:23:49 PDT 2011


On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 5:46 AM, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:


> Okay, let me ask explicitly: what's wrong with being against full
> employment as a demand? Jobs (little "j") fucking suck and cause as
> much misery, stress, and death as lack of jobs. Why demand that? Talk
> about desiring your own repression.

I don't see what's so difficult about it. In conditions of full employment we have something more than bravado with which to resist the shittiness of jobs, because you're not tied to any one in particular - it's easier to move around and firms are more desperate for your labour, so wages tend to rise faster, so you can spend less time working if you like. Full employment conditions make us freer from work, in a way that bluster doesn't.

For these reasons, I don't think full employment is sustainable for capitalism in the long run, which is why an awful lot of macro-policy effort goes into cooling things off should the economy threaten to get there. But it's a worthwhile radical political aim nonetheless, because getting there and staying there would push the system beyond capitalism.

Mike



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