Lower working hours is an undeniable good thing, but some of the claimed implications here are wrong. Ill just focus on the claim that lower profits means cutting waste, means focussing on production for human need: This is wrong. Cutting waste does not mean focussing on human need. It means focussing on expansion of capital. Human need, v (variable capital, human labour), is only one part of the capitalist equation. With lower working hours, we see a reduction in s, which promotes an increase in c (constant capital, physical plant). But this isnt only the case with lowered working hours. All capitalist investment requires investment in c. The only necessary production for human need is that which is necessary to reproduce v. *However* with a rise in wages/reduction in costs that results from decreased labour time, we will see more disposable income by the class, and therefore more production of commodities to gobble that up. But this is not necessary a reduction of waste in the capitalist sense, a reduction of parasitic production. Further, the increasing real wages for workers would mean the state can tax workers more. State revenue might decline, but the purchasing power would increase. The surplus value available to the immediate exploiting capitalist would decrease at the expense of increasing surplus value available to the state. In this case we would see increasing political importance of parasitic production, like military production, or over paid government contracts. This is just Jehus conception of the fascist state coming through in another way.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 02:54:34 +0000
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