7 Lecture Work and Class 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. What is Work? Alienation and Class Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment (Main street to Bay Street) Top Ten Lists: Pay, Danger and Crime Labour and Law Perspectives on Labour and Management (if time) Westray
NAIRU Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment There is no greater modern illusion or fraud than the use of the word work which can be seen from a pleasant view where they suppress they are a favoured class...say they enjoy they work and then there are others who feel it as a demeaning aspect. . the word work covers many radical experiences and the one word doesn't do justice to those experiences . What is work? . work is an activity central to the lives of human beings and one that differentiates us from other forms of life . Rinehart "Only humans.....as we develop the means to copse with....as well as new ideas, traditions and institution" . work has a profound effect on us mentally, physically, psychologically . it shapes our personalities, etc. . what we do outside of work is impacted by what do for work . no consensus...work is a contested concept as is alienation and class . only two kinds of work: first type involves altering the position of matter (moving things around) . the second type of work involves telling others to do stuff . having made this distinction, Russell says the first type tends to be unpleasant, poorly paid and dangerous . the second type of work tends to be pleasant, well paid, and usually quite safe . Russell wrote in phrase of idleness...he denounces hard work . he argues that it is leisure not work, that advances civilization . but there can be no leisure without the necessities of life; that is, work is important . but he says that the work should be spread out . adam smith . he says that work is an activity requiring the worker to give up his tranquility, his freedom, and his happiness
Nelles Anderson, and economist . work is the continuous employment in the production of goods and services for pay (remuneration) . work then is something you do for pay . work = employment . all else he says is labour . work is what you do for money, everything else is labour Rinehart . work is any activity that entails the provision of goods and services for others . his definition encompasses the huge amount of unpaid work done around the work predominantly by women . it recognizes the huge amounts of unpaid work . according to stats can, unpaid work would be valued at 319billon dollars...it accounts to the equivalent of 41% of Canada's gdp . 2/3's of that work is done by women . rinehart's definition also encompasses volunteer work, prison labour, people on welfare, unpaid work that is done around paid work (prep time e.g. for lecture) . today your occupation goes a long way to determine the quality of your life . the availability of work and the different awards attached to it, establishes life chances ...e.g. it says your ability to enjoy leisure, healthy way, a manner comparable to the community, and education . all of these things are related to your work . work goes beyond this thought...there is a vast literature that shows the tragic consequences of not being with work . Unemployment contributes to the breakdown of relationship and the feeling of worthlessness . the nature of work is changing rapidly Smith . describes the pin factory and the craft's man trying to make a pin...then he talks to when a manufactory is employed where there are 10 workers and each one specializes (does one task)...they could make 48000...10 workers vs. 1 worker . the key to unlocking the productivity of labour is the division of labour according to smith . so we learn that from the wealth of nations that this has a positive but then there is a condemnation of this towards the end of his book . the impact that this innovation of the division of labour on the people who are subjected to it
. "man's whole life is spent performing a few simple operations where the effects are usually the same...he loses the habit of exertion and becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible as human being can become" ..."he is unable to bear a part in rational conversation...cannot do any just judgement...he is altogether incapable of judging and incapable of defending his country in war....corrupts the body and does not allow vigour and perseverance..." . the worker under the division of labour is very much a beast of burden .t his is what marx uses for his work on alienation . the person has been de-skilled if they do a single solitary work over and over again workers who work under those kinds of conditions are alienated . alienation at work . for Rinehart, alienation is not psychological, it is structural everyone in that capitalist economy is alienated...he would argue that everyone in the capitalist economy whether on the assembly line or not, are alienated . alienation has three sources 1. the division of labour it exists not just in an assembly line...it does not need to be as explicit as that e.g. McDonald's 2. the increasing concentration of the ownership of the means of production the equipment necessary to work is in the hands of fewer and fewer people....capitalism has the tendency to produce monopolies..fewer and fewer employers 3. the development of markets in land, labour and commodities . alienation manifest itself in four ways 1. under capitalisms workers are alienated from the worker they are producing they are no longer responsible for the entire product; they don't have control of the final product; 2. they are also alienated form the process of which that product is made 3. under capitalism workers are alienated from themselves t hey no longer engage in the human activity where they are the creator and those who control what they do...they are alienated from their own innate humanness...work becomes instrumental...work becomes a means to an end...life begins when work ends...you are dehumanized 4. you are alienated form others b/c capitalism creates a labour market where you compete with others and when you do land a job you are in competition with others for upward mobility...other than creating a community you create competition where everyone else is a competitor . according to Rinehart, alienated labour makes us less human, removes from our control part of that that makes us human beings . work is a means to some other ends...life begins when work ends . human beings begin to express themselves through the commodities they are able to earn through alienated work not the actual they work do
.there is also a psychological notion that alienation can be cured . but for Rinehart the only cure for alienation is the end of capitalism
. another contested concept is class . widely used and almost never defined . class is a concept that is not widely embraced in NA and to the extent where it is, we tend to see it as a manifestation of stratification...a sense of income levels, your occupations, it is seen as a hierarchy . class is a concept that is met with a great deal of hostility esp. in the US where is to see as a classless society...they think we don't have class now...a huge reluctance in the US to define one-self in terms of class . if you believe you live in a society of equal opportunity then to define yourself in a lower class you see yourself as a failure . In Europe, class tends to be viewed in terms of a social location . viewed more along the lines of Seabrook...it tends to be how much control, you have over your own labour and control over other's people's labour . do you make a living by buying labour or selling labour . in this view, class is defined as a social group which shares common characteristics based on a common position in the economy . this has impact on other individuals ...it goes a long way to determine your economic, political, cultural power . what you do in the economy translates to what you have in terms of power compared to others . class in social location tends to come from marx and engles work .the proletariat (they sell their labour) and the bourgeois (they own the means of production . class is still often seen as this...it is determined by some combination of income and social status . class, what you do in the economy translates to power you have relative to others in the society . Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment .avg. unemployment in Keynesian period ...less than 5%...1970's . in most western democracies, unemployment averaged around 2% . 1979...over 8% . 1990-2000 close to 10% . we then witness the new period where it fell to about 5-6% in . now, it is close to 8.6% . US is 10.2%...it hasn't been that high since the great depression . statisticians now broader unemployment rate...people who have given up looking for work and who are not calculated in our unemployment rate
. then there are those who work part-time cause they are unable to find full-time work . if you take these two groups...involuntary part-time..then you have the broader unemployment rate in the US is 17.2% . in Canada we would have in the avg. broader unemployment rate in Canada in the 1990's is about 20% . in the Keynesian era the full employment was important...stimulate AD . then as we see the supply side, neo-liberals enter . unemployment ceases to be priority, inflation is the impt . if higher unemployment are necessary to keep inflation low, then the . NAIRU . there is a natural rate of unemployment...at that rate, inflation will stay constant . if unemployment falls below, the tradeoff will be an increase of inflation . at the natural rate, gov't should do nothing to help unemployment . the priorities of bay street replaced those of main street as the inflation was more impt than unemployment Priorities Main St Bay St Low inflation Low High High interest rates Low High Low unemployment High Low Social spending High Low Capital mobility Low High Deficit reduction low high Governing Instruments Main St Regulation Bay St Deregulation gov't regulations are not necessary...let the people Flat/Regressive reward the entrepreneurial person not penalize them
Prog. Taxes the more you make, the higher taxes you pay...those at the top get more benefits from the system and should pay more Public Ownership pursue Privatization- gov't needs to gov't policies get out of the market place Spending gov't had no Debt Reduction difficulty with spending...in tack with the Keynesian period . in the past 25 years, the priorities of bay street are more important . while full unemployment policies are gone . tighter rules for those who collect . reduced benefits for those who collect
. penalties for quitting jobs . employment insurance has contributed a surplus where only few can collect to it who contribute it . welfare programs we have seen a movement away from the safety net back to the economic whip of smith's model .Top Ten Lists: Pay, Danger and Crime . the tend lowest paying occupations in Canada women outnumber men in all of the lowest paying occupations in Canada, except for service station attendants. As babysitters, nannies and parent's helpers, women outnumber men by 47:1. In every occupation men are paid more than women. . these occupations mirror those of Russell unpleasant, dangerous . ten highest paying men outnumber women in all 10 of the highest paying occupations in Canada. In the case of senior managers of goods production, utilities, transportation, construction, men outnumber women by more than 11:1.. The women in this field are only 56% more than the men doing the same work. In every occupation, men are paid more than women . this resembles russell's second explanation of work...pleasant, safe . in 2006, for the first time ever, the most common occupation for men is the same as women....the retail sales person Labour and the Law . trade unions become legal entities in Canada in 1872 ...legalized by conservative gov't by john a. macdonald . prior to this, under British common law, unions were illegal b/c they constraint labour . but the fact that they are legal doesn't mean the employer has to recognize them . unions are legal in 1872 but we don't have compulsory collective beginning until 1974 this means that the employer must bargain in good faith to cover to cover the employees . industrial disputes act this gives us compulsory conciliation must be a cooling off period....when your contract is done, you can't go on strike...you must go at through the conciliation period . then in 1974 the Privy Council order 1003 is passed forces employers to engage in collective bargaining...also, you cannot be fired for union activity or bringing a union in your workplace . legal for the union to go on strike during the life of a collective period . bargain in good faith . from 1944 1973, labour law gets friendlier to labour . in 1948 industrial relations act . in 1977- public sector workers get the same rights as private workers . beginning in the 1970's everything goes the other way...from war to the 1970's the labour laws were beginning to be better towards labour . Stagflation . trudeau has to announce wage and price control