economic policy & Labour

Eternal Capitalist Appeal: Work More but Earn Less

ONCE again, a moral appeal of extending working hours to ninety hours a week has been proposed by L&T chairman resonating the need for extending working week to 70 hours proposed by Narayan Murthy last year. Workers should work more and preferably on Sundays to achieve higher growth and be on the top of the world. This is being floated when India is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Capitalists always vouch for higher efforts from the workers while being silent on the issue of return.

Changing Patterns of Consumption Expenditure

THE National Statistical Office has recently released the fact sheet of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24. It is the second survey report of the annual series that begun in 2022-23 after a long gap since the 68th Round Consumption Expenditure Survey released by the government in 2011-12. The government seems to be comfortable to release this report this time as the Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) has increased from Rs 3,773 in 2022-23 to Rs 4,122 in 2023-24 in rural India and from Rs 6,459 to Rs 6,996 in urban India respectively.

Waged and Unwaged Work in Capitalism

CAPITALIST accumulation entails a combination of waged and unwaged work involved in production and social reproduction. Production of goods and services must be supported by a process of social reproduction that refers to producing the labour power required for production.Capitalism is defined as a system of generalised commodity production which includes commodification of labour power.

Socialism: An Imperative Call for Human Existence and Civilisation

SOCIALISM is premised on the idea of fundamental inversion of the labour process that exists in capitalist societies. In capitalism, the worker is subject to the condition of production where the worker is alienated from the means of production, the process of production and the outcomes of productive process. This is articulated through the crude division between mental and physical labour and the worker is supposed to follow the rules of capital relations which naturalises this separation.

Climate Politics and Class

THE climate crisis that the humanity faces has been addressed by bourgeoisie theorists as a non-class issue to be resolved either by restraining consumption or by internalising climate costs in prices that disfavours polluters. The presumption for such theories is that individual consumption patterns involve increasing use of energy and particularly fossil fuel and to restrict carbon emissions climate action calls for restricting consumption.Tax on polluters and subsidizing green goods alters the price signals in the market and facilitates ecologically sustainable consumption habits.

Creative Labour and Platform Economy

THE value of creative labour has always been very context specific and dependent on subjective appreciation of the buyer of the products of such labour. The importance of aesthetic value of products has increased particularly with increased possibility of customisation of products. This has also increased the demand for artists, designers and different types of content creators who could add value to the product or service beyond its core uses.

Decline in Labour’s Share Continues

LABOUR income continues to decline as a share of global GDP and contributes to the rising inequality in income prevalent across the world. Inequality is generally discussed in terms of disparities in personal income and how that varies across skill and education scale. These income inequality measures often try to ignore the fact that income gaps widen between groups of people defined by their position vis-a-vis means of production and property relation.

Decline in FDI Inflows

ONE of the main arguments advanced by the proponents of liberalisation policies in developing countries including India is that capital would flow to the global South in search of higher rate of return. This would create new investments and hence growth and employment would increase. Also, the inflow of foreign funds would bring tangible outcomes of higher technological learning which are embodied in machines and organisational culture.

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