127. Feminism, an industrialist's dream
I
realise I am about to open a huge hornets nest, but in thinking about the
incorporation of women to the workplace in the 50s and 60s, a critical step on
the emancipation of women, as many would tell you, I cannot help but thinking
also about the impact that this had on the value of labour in its ages old to
and fro with capital for the share of the wealth created in the economy. By
doubling the supply of labour overnight, it over time halved its value. The
result is that a working couple today has, all else being equal, similar
relative acquisitive power to a one worker couple in the 60s, whilst corporate
profits have exploded since. This is a bad deal for workers and a capitalist
dream. Women should, of course, have access to the workplace in fully equal
terms, but the way this should work, in the interest of the working class,
should have been with one of the couple, it does not matter who, entering the
labour force, thus preserving the unit value of labour and the price it
commands
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Comments
When you aim to be fast, you run; when aim to eat, you look for food. When your aim is to accumate goods, you maximize profit over everything else. That is the aim of our current social system and that is what we get. And that is why robots will do everything and we will have no jobs or income, it is cheaper, it is better, some will be richer and they will Not care about the rest.
It's a hornets nest that needs to be opened, like so many other things, and talked about. Like so many other things, there is no black and white single answer, and those things that are most worth discussing and addressing don't come with those neat and simple answers.
I do think it is probably pretty obvious to anyone who is not seriously sick where the money is better deployed...