Speaking
on RT show, The Big Picture, hosted by Thom Hartmann, Dr. Richard
Wolff explains, among other things, why Donald Trump is wrong to
blame foreign workers for the loss of US jobs.
Even if Mr. Trump were to carry through and really do a
number on stopping American corporations from competing in a world
economy by going to cheap low-wage areas, like Mexico, all that
you're going to make those companies do, is try to compete in another
way.
How will they do that?
The major way of the last 30 years has been automation.
First the computer, then the robot. And the result of that will be
more unemployment, more of a problem with good jobs disappearing,
this time not replaced by low-wage jobs in Mexico, but by a robot.
This is a system that works this way and there is nothing Mr. Trump
has proposed that deals with that fundamental problem. He will not
stop the response of the business community, which is the problem at
the base.
What we do know is, over the last forty years, when
we've had robotization, when we've had computers, the promise that
they would relieve us of arduous work has been broken. People are
doing longer hours of arduous work today than they ever did. The
promise of that technology not delivered. The problems that the
technology would keep us working - that hasn't worked out really well
either since the unemployment rate is actually very high, when you
count the people who have left because they don't even think they can
find a job.
So, in fact we already see that allowing technology to
be put into place for profit purposes, produces changes in the
reality of working people's lives that are not only not desirable,
but are terrifying to most people, especially when they look down the
road as to where more of this can lead.
The last sentence by Dr. Wolff means actually that
capitalism is not compatible with the rapid grow of Artificial
Intelligence and automation. We need to use the benefits of
technology for the good of all people through changing the current,
obsolete system of destructive, financial capitalism.
As Stephen Hawking had pointed:
If
machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how
things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious
leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can
end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby
against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward
the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing
inequality.
Yanis Varoufakis was informed of the new conditions, as
has been described
already back in 2014: “When I returned to my office, I went
straight to find a colleague who knows well what's going on. He
informed me that the workplace I saw, was the new factory of Apple to
produce MacBook Pro. It was true that, it was constructed through
almost complete automatization. [...] I asked him about the move of
Apple to produce computers in America, by bringing back in the US the
production from China for the first time after decades. 'How's that?'
And the answer was the expected one, although quite impressive:
'Wages are of no importance. The export of productive
processes from America to China (off-shoring) was only an
intermediate stage. The production has returned to America, but not
the jobs. The new factory of Apple, not only is constructed without
American workers' sweat, but will also produce MacBook Pro through
complete automatization, without hiring Texans. Welcome to the New,
Brave World', ended with a smile, referring obviously to
the Brave New World of Aldous Huxley.”
Unless Trump is solely interested to secure the
interests of his billionaire class, he should start seeing the big
picture and stop blaming foreign workers and China for the loss of US
jobs.
Of course, it would be more or less a miracle to expect
from the new US president to abandon the totally neoliberal
perception (adopted by the lobby-occupied political establishment in
the West), that, in order to reduce unemployment, economy must become
more competitive to the foreign labor force. Which is translated to
increasingly lower wages and longer work hours in slavery conditions.
As Dr. Wolff explained, it doesn't work. It's only an excuse for more
profits and tax reliefs for the big corporations.
never give up writing Greek man.. really appreciate your articles.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much!
DeleteHas Dr. Wolff ever heard of "Subcontractors"? You know, all those other "parts" manufacturers, supply-chains, raw-material processors, robot-maintenance i.e., everything that goes into Apple's "Assembly" plant? Anyone, Anybody? Anyone?
ReplyDeleteMuch of that work is not at all cheaper to produce through total automation because of the supply-demand curve. Those industries, largely small-plant operations, typically employ far more people than the assembly-plants they supply.
But that's "real-world" economics, not silly academic assessments based on superfluous anecdote.
You should fire that guy. Sensationalizing the trivial in order to generate fear as an attempt to create value is pure Sophistry; despicable and worthy of banishment.
Having metastasized over the last 40-years of educational deconstruction via eugenicist central-planning, ivory-tower incompetence and run-of-the-mill hubris, Sophistry has once again become the replacement for cosmology. Exposure and Eradication should be the first order of business.
Dr. Wolff would do well to start learning something useful; Sophistry has no longer an ear of the king; but soon it will have the ire of the awakening villagers.