LEARN THE ISSUES
"Advocating Economic & Personal Change" |
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Overwork Generally, the more work you do, the more revenue for the owner, and the greater the return on his or her investment; and, if he or she is a "good" businessperson, the more profit they will make. Profit is really the point of capitalist business operations. Specifically, an integral or key part of the normal way capitalism operates involves competition. The reality of competition, especially now that it is global and workers that were once highly-paid must now compete with workers from elsewhere who are paid little, means that to maintain satisfactory profit levels workers must be shed. This is because the largest cost of running a business is "labor," in other words, workers. Yet the same quantity of work, if not more because of competition, must still be done. So what does the owner (i.e. the capitalist) do? No problem! They simply "ask" their remaining workers to do the extra work (a mafia-like offer that the workers simply "can't refuse," at least if they want to keep their job), and, viola', you have overworked, and now stressed-out, employees. Who, by the way, are usually not paid more for their extra labor. Overwork can also occur because the capitalist firm is doing poorly in the marketplace and the owner is trying improve its standing. This is also a function of competition, however, since what does "doing poorly" mean? It obviously means that the company is losing the competition in the marketplace. This forces the capitalist to either shed workers to reduce (labor) costs, this way they can sell their product or service for less money than their competitors, thereby increasing market share. Or, it means that the owner must "ask" workers to either work harder (there's your overwork, again) or accept reduced wages. And as you probably know, reduced wages can come through lack of regular pay increases, or through actual cuts in existing wages. You might ask, "Can't overwork occur because the owner is simply "greedy"? Can't we keep capitalism intact, but simply eliminate greed? Eliminate greed? Good luck! Yes, greed can be a factor, but it will ordinarily not be the only factor. Additionally, the right and the ability to overwork you because of greed or any other reason is only possible in the first place because the rules of capitalism allow it, and indeed encourage it. (Encourage it how? To be discussed, stay tuned.) You now know why you are overworked, and why overwork stems from the normal operation of capitalism. The solution to your overwork (or that of your children, and their children, etc, down the line)? We must transition peacefully and democratically from capitalism to a Cooperative system. A Cooperative system is not based on competition or profit, so none of the problems described above can happen in the first place. |
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