Stakhanovism is alive and well and kicking

[robbo203]

Interesting article this

 

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/29643-the-growing-degradation-of-work-and-life-and-what-we-might-do-to-end-it

 

This excerpt sums it

Workers are conceptualized as mechanical cogs in a system that transforms inputs into outputs, and a host of managerial control techniques are implemented to force those hired to perform what they are ordered to do in a machine-like fashion.

 

So much for the so called "Leisure Society" touted all those years ago.  By some estimates the working day seems to have recently lengthened in some parts of the world – like the US  – or for some sections of the workforce.  But even if the overall trend is downward, the capitalist money system generates more and more work merely to keep itself ticking over. In other words, more and more of what we do contributes absolutely nothing to human wellbeing and wastes a stupendous and ever growing proportion of labour power and resources in the process.

[Richard]

Capitalism is becoming more inefficient in its never ending quest for a higher margin of profit. A more efficient system would be to have a four-day work week with six hour shifts and higher pay per individual. But capitalism focuses on the short term profit (e.g., quarterly profits) and not on long term social wellbeing.This caught my eye:"The market is nothing more than a surface phenomenon, behind which lies the critical social relationship of unequal power, which means that focusing our efforts solely on regulation of the market ignores what is fundamental. So perhaps instead, we should make demands and take actions that threaten the market, that is, by directly attacking the power of those who are its masters and not accepting arrangements that allow the system to absorb our efforts and continue much as before. In addition, because the market is enveloped by an array of institutions – the state, media, schools – that buttress the power of those who control it, efforts to radically alter society must aim to change these as well."There is no market in the classical sense, not in a corporate capitalist system.The state, media and schools – all excellent conduits for propaganda, corporate propaganda.

[Author]

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