Click here to access article by John Pennington from his blog Class War in America.
Pennington observes the tremendous increase in productivity of American workers since the 40 hour workday was established (mostly in the 1930s), but workers are still working the same 40 hour week. This doesn't seem right to him--and, of course, it isn't right. He concludes that the reason is the "capitalist imperative to maximize profit". I think that this explanation could be misleading by attributing motives of selfishness to individual capitalists. Hence, it suggests a moral problem instead of a system problem.
Capitalism gives the "owner(s)" of an enterprise control over the value that is produced by workers and the equipment they use. Of course, the equipment they use was produced by other workers, and their owners took control of the value of these machines. Worker's labor is, like most everything under capitalism, a commodity to be purchased as hourly wages in the labor market much like capitalists pay rent to occupy a facility in an industrial property market. It just another cost of doing business.
If owners/corporations fail to reduce costs to a minimum, they likely will fail in their market by competition from other enterprises. And in regard to corporations, they are legally required to maximize profit or else they can be sued by their shareholders. Thus, it is the system, not the moral qualities of owners of enterprises that is the issue. To be sure, such a system encourages owners and their managers to function with a lack of moral/ethical principles.
