Full employment is a turning point for capitalism, Unemployment creates exploitation of workers

capitalism and climate change cartoon

The owners of capital favour unemployment, because the unemployed workers have to accept poorly paid jobs to be able to feed their families. A higher unemployment rate produces cheaper labour. Unemployment is not difficult to maintain because employers most often do not need to hire employees. Also, the owners of capital support political parties that keep unemployment through economic policy. It starts with importing cheap labour and ends with rising interest rates. This is how unemployment becomes a state policy and how state policy maintains the exploitation of workers. All the exploitation of workers has its origin in unemployment. I wrote more about it in the article: Let’s remove unemployment.

The rich people have imposed believing that unemployment is an unavoidable price, which must be paid for technological development. They have pressured economic science to accept that 0% of unemployment is not a positive thing, which they accomplished. The capitalists have found an unemployment rate of about 5% the most convenient to them so that 5% of unemployment has become a “normal” state in capitalist society. This “normal” state makes workers dependent on capitalists. It allows the exploitation of workers through low labour costs, while the total purchasing power of workers is still large enough to produce profits for private companies. However, such a policy has enlarged the gap between rich and poor what increases problems in society.

We can eliminate unemployment

We may inverse the process of unemployment by shorter work hours. Reducing work hours by 5% should eliminate 5% unemployment. In this way, workers will become more demanded by employers. When workers are not available on the market, employers who need new workers will have to get them from other employers by raising their salaries. Competition among employers will start a chain reaction in which workers’ wages will gradually grow. It would create a fair market for work with a steady demand for all workers. Removing of unemployment will remove the exploitation of workers.

We can reach even negative unemployment

The rise in worker salaries may be accelerated by creating negative unemployment. Negative unemployment means creating a work environment with a permanent lack of workers. Reversing a 5% unemployment with the same negative unemployment would mean the complete elimination of unemployment plus the creation of 5% work posts, which cannot get workers because they do not exist. It would require shorter work hours of all workers for around 10%. Such a measure would require reducing 8 hours workday to approximately 7 hours (along with preventing work imports).

Empty workplaces will put workers in a privileged position, in which employers have been from ever, and this will force employers to raise worker salaries more intensively. It would initialize a chain reaction in which workers’ wages would grow significantly.

History proved that negative unemployment rose workers’ salaries

The rising of workers’ wages in the negative unemployment environment was proved in the 14th Century when the Black Death killed one-third of the European population. Suddenly, the crops in the fields languished because there were not enough people to harvest them. “The shortage of servants, craftsmen, and workmen, and of agricultural workers and labourers, left a great many lords and people without service and attendance.” Suddenly workers and their labour were in much higher demand, enabling those who survived the Black Death to be in a much better position to negotiate work conditions. The shortage of workers increased the workers’ wages.

At Cuxham (Oxfordshire, England), a plowman demanded from his Lord a payment three times greater in 1350 than in the previous year ( The Economic Impact of the Black Death, Economic History Association).

“In Parliament, in 1351 the Commons petitioned Edward III for a more resolute and effective response. They complained that “servants completely disregard the said ordinance in the interests of their ease and greed and that they withhold their services to great men and others unless they have liveries and wages twice or three times as great as [prior to the plague] to the serious damage of the great men and impoverishment of all members of the said commons.”” (Michael Bennett, Australian Journal of Law and Society, 1995, The Impact of the Black Death on English Legal History, Page 197)

Politics can create a better capitalism

According to this historical example, if a political party wins an election offering a reduction of work to 5 hours per day, the lack of workers would increase workers’ salaries 2-3 times per hour in one year. The daily wages of workers would rise 30-90% for just a 5-hour shift. Workers would work shorter hours and earn much more.

Today we have accepted 8 hours workday suggested by Robert Owen at the beginning of the 19th Century.  Is there any particular reason for 8 hours workday? No, it is just a constant value society accepted and got used to. Besides providing full employment, the workday should be a function variable that determines people’s work needs. If workers would like to work less, then work hours should be shorter and vice versa. The length of work hours may de democratically expressed by people or by political parties. Political parties should offer the best period of full-time work for the people, and it would be one of the factors which make them elected.

The length of a workday can undoubtedly be a very powerful and the most important regulator of the free market. The minimum wage will not be needed. Full employment will bring higher salaries to all workers, not just for minimum wage. It will result in higher purchasing power of people, allowing the economy to grow and the capitalist to profit more. No other regulation besides work hours will be needed for creating an ethical distribution of wealth in the economy.

Democratically chosen work hours will create a fair market of work, which will balance the demand and supply of work and provide just incomes. It will establish a good society as well and a much brighter future for humankind. It will become a turning point for capitalism, making it a decent social system.

Conspiracy of the rich prevents a better capitalism

Nothing that I wrote here is rocket science. Shorter work hours are even a natural solution in the developed automation processes. How come no one has offered shorter work hours to people? That is because rich people prevent the idea of shorter work hours coming to workers. The rich people rule over workers by imposing fear for their existence. The less independent workers are, the more power the rich have over them. Eliminating fear of unemployment means eliminating the power of rich people, and this is the worse that might happen to them. Rich people have used their power of influence in policy, science, and media to prevent progressive ideas from coming.

Now I will present how well organized and persistent rich people are in preventing a just society. The picture above shows one demonstration calling for the employment of people. The organizer was Bail Out the People, which can be seen on paroles the demonstrators carry. The organization probably did not survive. However, their web site still exists, but now it is about cosmetics. It looks fake. The question is, why would a cosmetic magazine buy the name of an unsuccessful organization which has nothing to do with cosmetics? The answer is, there is no small thing the rich will hesitate to do to destroy an idea pointing to social justice.

All the knowledge we use today has been imposed on people by the power of authorities. This means all the knowledge we have accepted is useful to authorities and not necessary to people. Today intense propaganda of the rich produces all that we know. So that the knowledge we have certainly serve the rich and not necessary for us. But there is worse than that, people have been systematically forced to accept knowledge all their lives so that most of the people have not developed the skill to recognize the truth if authorities do not support it. This means they cannot escape from an inferior position in society. People do what they are told to do thousands of times. This is how the rich build the so-called sheep mentality of people.

It is not that people who accepted imposed knowledge do not understand new ideas. The problem is they cannot reach the essence of the problem. They cannot distinguish important information which solves problems among million useless pieces of information. People do understand that shorter work hours would increase worker salaries. But they do not believe in it, otherwise “authorities” would undoubtedly implement it and “improve” society. Or, there must exist some problems that prevent such “improvement of society,” which I did not take into consideration. And by being incapable of searching for an essence, they give up before even tried to find an escape for the problems. Otherwise, people would implement shorter work hours a long time ago, which would improve their lives and capitalism itself.

What makes me capable of offering a better world?

I did not believe in knowledge imposed by authorities, which made me stop believing in authorities. I have searched for the truth and essence all my life. It was not my conscious decision; it was something built in me. The freedom of thoughts had given me a great advantage, which ordinary people who follow rules of authorities do not have. It helped me create the most significant social conclusion ever: “Nothing built on unequal human rights can work, and everything built on equal human rights will work perfectly.” This discovery was so vital that I decided to give up on my profession of architecture right after graduation and to work on building a bright future of humankind.

It took me ten years to develop how equal human rights will create a good society and to present my findings in the book Humanism – A Philosophic-Ethical-Political-Economic Study of the Development of the Society. I was very concerned about the objectivity of my work, and this made my work tough. In the last 27 years, I have performed countless discussions about the bright future of humankind, and I never lost one. It confirmed my objectivity, which means my book indeed most likely presents the bright future of humanity. The work also developed my sense of righteousness. I do not need to think about problems anymore; I can feel the right path, which makes me eliminate unimportant information and not getting wrong.

It helped me see that the rich not only prevent the truth from coming but also deceive people by supporting ideas that could not improve society. For example, the rich have helped the Marxist revolution knowingly it could not improve society. Revolutions were much better solutions to the rich than let people come up with the conclusion that a real escape from exploitation lies in shorter work hours. By supporting Marx, the rich have successfully prevented a better society for more than 100 years, and they still do. Marxists cannot accept new left ideas that reject Marxism, and therefore, they prevent the bright future of humankind. I wrote about it in the article: Marx still prevents the progress of society. The wealthy conspirators are masters of deception. I have presented the whole conspiracy of the rich in the article: Jacob Rothschild is Guilty for the Conspiracy Against Humankind.

Capital may departure from a fair market of work

The starting problem of eliminating unemployment and making the economy grow lies in the fact that employers do not like to increase worker salaries. Employers may escape from expensive workers in full employment society by the departure of their capital out of the country. We need to understand that capitalism has established laws that give more freedom to capital than to workers, and that needs to change. At least the rules need to provide the same rights to capital as to workers.

Any departure of capital brings trouble to a domestic economy, which will result in closing companies and more unemployed workers. To make all employed, it would require an additional reduction in the workers’ work hours. Therefore, economic security would still be guaranteed to all people. The shortening of working hours will reduce the incomes of workers, but they would remain high enough to provide a decent life.

Capitalism has spent a lot of energy on developing the consumer mentality, which is very unnecessary. It also established an egotistical character trait of workers, which is wrong. Today’s workers already have a higher living standard than kings had in the Middle Ages. The kings did not have cars, internet, phones, bathrooms, medical healing, international food, etc. Should not workers be more satisfied with their lives today than kings in the Middle Ages? Are they?

No, they are not. Firstly, satisfaction does not depend on wealth only. And secondly, the system in which workers live does not let them feel secure. Losing a job might take all the benefits from workers, which concerns them permanently. The solidarity coming from a shortening of work hours will eliminate this fear and will let people live worry-free. Free people will discover what kind of life best benefit to them.

Developed market of work will create socialism 

Will a reduction of work hours reduce the productivity of work? Hardly. Quantity of work hours is just one of the factors that determine productivity. A much more important fact is the quality of work, such as rationality and creativity of work. Can more equalized salaries destimulate work effort? Well, it can, but we may implement a new stimulation to work significantly higher than wages might be.

We can easily find the stimulation for work in our very culture. We are taught by capitalism to love competitions and to be the winners brings enormous satisfaction to us. People do not hesitate to involve an extreme effort to reach such a goal. Why would not we open competitions for every public workplace at any time? I know it sounds impossible because such a division of labour never existed. But the realization of it is just a technical problem.

The system I have developed will effectively evaluate the productivity of work offers, define the job responsibilities of workers, and harmonize rewards for work. In short, the workers who offer the highest productivity and accountability, and demand the lowest salary will get the job. It would be nothing else but a developed market of work. However, it will require time for the market of work to develop enough and be accepted by people.

It will stimulate workers to work much more than anyone can imagine today, while the existence of workers would never be endangered. It would establish such a rigid form of responsibility that no one would dare to offer work proposals they would not be able to meet. The market will also regulate worker salaries in the most objective way. It would increase living standards for all people in an unprecedented way. Equal human rights will bring the best possible values to all people. Everyone will be satisfied with their lives.

No economy can be more productive than the one where each job gets the best available worker. Public companies will become more productive than private ones so that capitalism will go down in history. Complete implementation of equal human rights should be called socialism. Socialism will be the final result of full employment. My book Humanism scientifically presents how to achieve this goal.

 Aleksandar Šarović is a humanist. He can be reached http://www.sarovic.org


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