Workers as liabliities

well as I continue to do my core readying into labor and economics I have noticed something interesting. Again, another reason why we are not living in a capitalist economy. You see for the Classical Economists, (Smith, Marx, Ricardo, Malthus) the worker added value to whatever was produced. The whole debate for them was how to treat this CLASS of people vs the owners of capital and how to establish their wages, and still maintain a utility, that is a profit. Workers were seen, at least by them, as something you needed to invest in, and maintain. No they were not wild about Unions, well Marx was, but they understood, at a core level, the importance of an educated work force. It was, an investment.

Well somewhere around the late 19th century we start to see a change, which has fully come to be today. First we separated the study of economics from the study of nature. Why in the modern sense storms are not believed to have an effect on the economy. (And why global weather change is not entering into any calculations either, that I can tell). There is more, it is no coincidence that these days we talk about the individual, not about a class of people. When we talk about workers and capitalists, we are not talking about a class of people with class interests. We are talking about individuals. Indeed our study of economics has become a libertarian heaven, where individual actions (you buying crap) have a major effect in the economy. There is more, workers have become liabilities, and a cost that we need to reduce to a minimum in the production system, or quite frankly externalize.

This last step has been accomplished by top tier companies. They no longer hire workers and run factories. It does not matter if this is Nike, or Mac, or Intel. They hire third parties that run those factories. In other words, Intel is distributing goods, not manufacturing them. Why? Because the worker is now a liability and so are all the support structures for that worker, be it housing, schools, hospitals... As I look at this more from a philosophical perspective and less from a just the facts ma'am, this is what has occurred. You and I don't matter, except as consumers, who need to buy into a lifestyle, a statement... but who are seen as a source of profit... or plain out liabilities.

This is truly a rabit hole I have gone down... now back to readying some classical economy, and figuring out how to make a case for making workers assets once again...

I need to do a LOT MORE readying though.

:-)

I am also readying a few history of science experts who are talking about how economics was removed from natural history... (I love history of science so this is right down my alley)

Though late, I will comment here anyway.

The development of extreme individualism, espeially here in the U.S. though it is one of our primary exports, has a relationship to our view of labor. It just got me thinking of cultural icons, such as John Wayne, the quintessential rugged indiviualist and his iconic gunfighter charcter. His dominance in the 50's and 60's encouraged the view of the lone individual. Apart from Wayne, all those movies about individuals standing aginst huge organized opposition and winning. (Those types of characters are still popular.) We have become a nation of gunfighters in which you are either quick or dead. No wonder Labor, a movmement that emphasizes a group security, is on the ropes. No wonder we worship the rich and associate them with success.

Yet, bussiness is also about class, about the Capitalist class and investor class.

Well, anyway, I found your musings interesting.