{"id":800,"date":"2019-03-05T15:48:39","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=800"},"modified":"2019-03-05T15:48:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T15:48:39","slug":"world-without-accountants","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/world-without-accountants\/","title":{"rendered":"World without accountants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is an extract from <\/strong>Socialism as a Practical Alternative<\/strong><\/em>, published the Socialist Party of Great Britain in 1994. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is often claimed that market competition makes society run efficiently. It is even\nclaimed that it ensures our resources are used in the interests of society as a whole. In\nreality, the destructive waste generated by the market system is so vast and complex that\nit is impossible to measure it precisely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can get an idea of the scale of present waste by looking at different kinds of jobs\nand asking whether they are connected with providing for real needs, or whether they are\nonly connected with operating the market itself. For example, does a bank worker\ncontribute to real needs? In their work, bank workers spend the day counting out money or\ntransferring totals from one piece of paper or computer screen to another. Under\ncapitalism it is obviously an indispensable employment. But this work arises from the\nlending and borrowing of money for investment, purchasing and so on. It is therefore\ninextricably bound up with the day to day operation of the market system. It is not\nintrinsically useful work, necessary for the production of goods and the running of\nservices for needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To banking we could add insurance and finance. But the waste does not stop here. All\nthese functions are serviced by other workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, bank workers are carried to work by transport, they work in buildings\nwhich require maintenance and use equipment such as computers. In this way the\nadministration and servicing of the profits system involves circuits of waste which\npervade the entire structure of production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other examples of employment which is necessary for the profit system\nbut would be immediately redundant in a socialist society of common rather than private\nownership and production for use instead of for market sale. The list is a long one –\nlegal workers, chartered accountants, cost accountants, estimators, valuers, claims\nassessors, underwriters, brokers, taxation workers, marketing and sales personnel,\nadvertisers, social security workers, cashiers and check-out assistants, police, prison\nworkers, security guards, charities, armies, navies, air forces, armament workers, defence\nestablishments etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The armed forces, in particular, waste vast resources. They use millions of people and\ndivert the most advanced techniques of applied science. On a world scale, tens of millions\nof people are involved in the war machine. With the abolition of the armed forces, these\nvast resources of energy, skills, materials, and technology would all become available for\nuseful production in socialism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, wars, large or small, are always going on in capitalism and means of production are constantly being destroyed (International Conflict)<\/a>. War objectives include the destruction of industrial networks and communication systems. In the wars of this century the destruction of factories, industrial equipment, buildings, railways, roads and bridges represents a vast amount of waste. It also involves a massive waste of the labour used in their construction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other people who are at present wasted under capitalism are the unemployed. They\nrepresent the whole spectrum of human skills forced into idleness while human needs are\ndenied. This in itself constitutes the self-evident proof that the capitalist system\nmaintains an economic barrier between production and needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A final acute problem of wasted labour arises from world-wide poverty (Who Owns The World?)<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full extent of waste under capitalism is impossible to quantify precisely. But\ntaking account of the main features, we can estimate that, with the elimination of all of\ncapitalism’s wasted labour and materials, socialism will probably be able to at least\ndouble the number of people available for the production of useful goods and services\ndirectly for need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: P. Lawrence <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What Others Have Said<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Approximately 60 per cent of the employed in U.S. America are working at tasks that are\n not producing any life support. Jobs of inspectors-of-inspectors; jobs with insurance\n companies that induce people to bet that their house is going to be destroyed by fire\n while the insurance company bets that it isn’t…..(Critical Path<\/em> – R Buckminster\n Fuller, p262) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Economically, those who are not needed as personnel for this system have no productive\n life at all and inevitably become out-caste (sic). The number of these increases, for in\n the new Industrial Revolution the exploitation of labour is not a majpr factor in\n production. According to various estimates, at the present stage of automation, twenty to\n forty thousand are thrown out every week. A RAND Corporation estimate is that the present\n goods and services can finally be produced by 2 per cent of the present labour force.\n (!!!)(People Or Personnel<\/em> – P. Goodman, p136.) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The computer will show that 70 per cent of all jobs in America and probably an\n equivalentally high percentage of the jobs in other private-enterprise countries are\n pre-occupied with work that is not producing any wealth or life support(!!!)(People Or\n Personnel<\/em> – P. Goodman.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Please email your comments about this article to feedback@worldsocialism.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back to the Resources Index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back to the World Socialist Movement home page<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an extract from Socialism as a Practical Alternative, published the Socialist Party of Great Britain in 1994. It is often claimed that market competition makes society run efficiently. It is even claimed that it ensures our resources are used in the interests of society as a whole. In reality, the destructive waste generated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-800","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}