We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, July 9, 2010

What work is really worth

from Le Monde Diplomatique. 

Most people who grow up in a capitalist society have little idea of how much indoctrination they have been subject to in order to turn them into true believers of the religion of capitalism. This article refers to a new study that will help you to step out of that soul destroying indoctrination to look at the value of individual work from a social utility point of view. If one understands this point of view, then it is obvious that capitalism does not serve social needs, but only the material needs of the few who can "win" in this barbaric system. 
Imagine for a moment we asked a crucial, and crucially different, economic question – not what are you paid, but what is the social return on the investment that is your pay? What do you contribute to society in exchange for your pay? It’s a reversed version of the usual monetary value question: what do you contribute to shareholders for your cost?
But the study's researchers reach some astounding conclusions: they favor changes to the subsystem of remuneration under capitalism ("market system"), progressive taxation, and restrictions on so-called "free trade". The latter, of course, permits corporations to outsource their operations to cheap labor countries where oppressive labor laws and little environmental enforcement exist.

Thus, it is clear that the researchers have also been so thoroughly indoctrinated that they cannot see that the remuneration of work, "free trade", oppressive taxation policies, etc. are products of the system. Apparently, like Margaret Thatcher and company, they don't see any alternative to capitalism. Or could it be that they dare not question the system if they are to continue receiving research grants and career advancement?