Monday, December 20, 2010

Wasted Work

There are hundreds of occupations that would not exist in a society that had no need for money: they range from accountants, bank and insurance staff, salespeople, wages clerks to name only some of the more numerous occupations. Tangible products needed only in a money system include bank notes and coins, account books and invoices, meters, safes and many others. A high proportion of employment in capitalism consists of handling money in some way. They are inextricably bound up with the day to day operation of the market system but not intrinsically useful work.

240,000 private security guards
152,000 police officers to serve and protect the monopoly of private property system
91,000 prisoners the numbers fuelled by squalid social conditions, the absence of hope and the alienation of capitalist society.
44,000 prison staff, equally alienated , to guard the above

90,000 arms trade/manufacture. To see how the weapons industry can be transformed into producing medical equipment see http://libcom.org/history/articles/lucas-aerospace-fight
240,000 in the military forces with all the associated human resources being diverted to the cause of destruction and slaughter, rather than producing useful items such as houses, hospitals or schools.

100,0000 in the finance sector such banking insurance etc. All their work arising from the lending and borrowing of money for investment, purchasing and so on.
14,000 debt collecting
20,000 credit agencies
700,000 Advertising, marketing, pr, and sales managers, all encouraging us to go out and buy buy buy , shop until we drop.
73,000 working in gambling, providing the forlorn hope of quick escape from our mundane dreary lives.
All these functions are serviced by other workers. For example, carried to work by transport, they work in buildings which require maintenance and use equipment such as computers, they appropriate the most advanced technologies.

Finally, we have the industrial reserve army of the unemployed 2,400,000 and the 5,400,000 part timers seeking full time employment .What a cruel waste of human talent and potential.

Inside a socialist societry there will be no need to buy food from anyone—it is common property. There are no rent or mortgages to pay because land and buildings belong to all of us. There is no need to buy anything from any other person.
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