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Economy
In reply to the discussion: STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 28 January 2013 [View all]Demeter
(85,373 posts)12. Ownership, Full Employment and Community Economic Stability
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/14091-ownership-full-employment-and-community-economic-stability
The great British economist, the late Joan Robinson, once observed that the only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism. This truth is felt acutely by anyone who is unemployed and looking for work. As the pain of the economic crisis continues and millions struggle to find employment there is an obvious imperative to create jobsany jobs. But we shouldnt stop there. In Back to Full Employment, Robert Pollin makes the essential point that a workable definition of full employment should refer to an abundance of decent jobs. Poor jobs that keep workers minimally employed but leave them in precarious circumstances and unable to participate fully in civic and political life are better than no jobs at all. But in terms of public policy we can and should aim higherespecially as decent jobs not only benefit the workers that hold them but also the communities in which they live. Absent a stable economic base, community itself is compromised.
Three elements of the instability challenge lend critical perspective to the issue. The first can be seen in the long-term results of the decline of manufacturing industry in the rust belt. We have in fact been quite literally throwing away entire citiescities like Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis. Since 1950, Cleveland and St. Louis have each lost half a million people, drops of more than 50 and 60 percent respectively; in Detroit, the fall in numbers has topped a million, more than 60 percent. The uncontrolled corporate decision-making that results in the elimination of jobs in one communityleaving behind empty houses, half-empty schools, roads, hospitals, public buildings, and so forthimplicitly requires that they be rebuilt in a different location. Quite apart from the human costs involved, the process is extremely costly in terms of capital and also of carbon contentand at a time when EPA studies show that greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity in the United States are still moving in the wrong direction (having jumped by over 3 percent between 2009 and 2010 alone).
A second aspect relates to democracy. Substantial local economic stability is clearly necessary if democratic decision-making is a priority. A local population tossed hither and yon by uncontrolled economic forces is unable to exercise any serious interest in the long-term health of the community. To the extent local budgets are put under severe stress by instability, local community decision-making (as political scientist Paul E. Peterson has shown) is so financially constrained as to make a mockery of democratic process. This becomes still more problematic if we recognizeas theorists from Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill to Benjamin Barber, Jane Mansbridge, and Stephen Elkin have arguedthat an authentic experience of local democratic practice is also absolutely essential for there to be genuine national democratic practice.
Thirdly, and straightforwardly, it will be impossible to do serious local sustainability planningmass transit, high-density housing, and so forththat reduces a communitys carbon footprint if such planning is disrupted and destabilized by economic turmoil. So yes, we need jobs. And yes, we need good jobs. But we also need an approach to good jobs that will allow us to grapple with the challenges indicated above while at the same time begin tackling the grotesque maldistribution of wealth in this countrya distribution that has reached literally medieval proportions. The top 400 individuals now control as much wealth as the bottom 180 million Americans taken together...MORE
Worker and community ownership OF THE MEANS OF MANUFACTURE AND SERVICE
The great British economist, the late Joan Robinson, once observed that the only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism. This truth is felt acutely by anyone who is unemployed and looking for work. As the pain of the economic crisis continues and millions struggle to find employment there is an obvious imperative to create jobsany jobs. But we shouldnt stop there. In Back to Full Employment, Robert Pollin makes the essential point that a workable definition of full employment should refer to an abundance of decent jobs. Poor jobs that keep workers minimally employed but leave them in precarious circumstances and unable to participate fully in civic and political life are better than no jobs at all. But in terms of public policy we can and should aim higherespecially as decent jobs not only benefit the workers that hold them but also the communities in which they live. Absent a stable economic base, community itself is compromised.
Three elements of the instability challenge lend critical perspective to the issue. The first can be seen in the long-term results of the decline of manufacturing industry in the rust belt. We have in fact been quite literally throwing away entire citiescities like Cleveland, Detroit and St. Louis. Since 1950, Cleveland and St. Louis have each lost half a million people, drops of more than 50 and 60 percent respectively; in Detroit, the fall in numbers has topped a million, more than 60 percent. The uncontrolled corporate decision-making that results in the elimination of jobs in one communityleaving behind empty houses, half-empty schools, roads, hospitals, public buildings, and so forthimplicitly requires that they be rebuilt in a different location. Quite apart from the human costs involved, the process is extremely costly in terms of capital and also of carbon contentand at a time when EPA studies show that greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity in the United States are still moving in the wrong direction (having jumped by over 3 percent between 2009 and 2010 alone).
A second aspect relates to democracy. Substantial local economic stability is clearly necessary if democratic decision-making is a priority. A local population tossed hither and yon by uncontrolled economic forces is unable to exercise any serious interest in the long-term health of the community. To the extent local budgets are put under severe stress by instability, local community decision-making (as political scientist Paul E. Peterson has shown) is so financially constrained as to make a mockery of democratic process. This becomes still more problematic if we recognizeas theorists from Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill to Benjamin Barber, Jane Mansbridge, and Stephen Elkin have arguedthat an authentic experience of local democratic practice is also absolutely essential for there to be genuine national democratic practice.
Thirdly, and straightforwardly, it will be impossible to do serious local sustainability planningmass transit, high-density housing, and so forththat reduces a communitys carbon footprint if such planning is disrupted and destabilized by economic turmoil. So yes, we need jobs. And yes, we need good jobs. But we also need an approach to good jobs that will allow us to grapple with the challenges indicated above while at the same time begin tackling the grotesque maldistribution of wealth in this countrya distribution that has reached literally medieval proportions. The top 400 individuals now control as much wealth as the bottom 180 million Americans taken together...MORE
Worker and community ownership OF THE MEANS OF MANUFACTURE AND SERVICE
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