Discussion
The biggest Q. for any Labour leader (and especially one about to become PM) is can you be *both* pro-business *and* pro-worker?
In theory, workers & employers could be working together to improve productivity, to generate profits justified by the social contribution of economic activity & *fairly* reward those who fund such activity, but in the UK as elsewhere, as Karl Marx expected, we have an economy where often employers exploit workers & only the rich prosper.
Can that change?
#politics
@ChrisMayLA6 the most productive thing, by far, that all this ‘productivity’ has wrought is biosphere destabilisation.
Can we not move past this deathly economics fetish?
Marx was writing at a time when ‘production’ had not yet brought us to where we are
Hmmm.... enhanced productivity would be a key way to stables living standards & reduce energy & materials usage - surely that would be a good thing.... accepting that it could also just be used to expand production
@ChrisMayLA6 my understanding is that the economics sense of ‘productivity’ has nothing to say about the worth or utility of what is being produced.
It strikes me as roughly as useless a policy focus as GDP.
We are much more productive at producing oil and plastics and bombs.
And efficiency tends to generate rebound effects which expand throughput.
Its an interesting point - it is often used that was but that is not necessary - its like cost/benefit analysis, it can be used in a constructively positive manner as a policy guide, but its reduction to a narrow focus by economists is part o the problem - a socially embedded view of productivity & efficiency would be part of a return to the political economy of Karl Polanyi, which I would welcome (and indeed partnered my own work)
@ChrisMayLA6 I have a more fundamental question for anyone who aspires to become Prime Minister. Why do they want the job? How will they make our lives better?
Take Keir Starmer as an example. What was his great vision? He was elected and had a huge parliamentary majority, but what did he achieve?
@ChrisMayLA6 You probably need to successfully convince folks that an angry poor will eat the rich unless they pivot into a cooperative coexistence and accept being just comfortable but (crucially) still alive. Who knows? They might even make some cool friends. Their current rich ‘friends’ were never real friends and would also eat them, given half a chance.
Yes, that's the bargain that has driven social democracy - treat us fair & we won't eat you - but as the capitalist class has become more authoritarian it has always dismissed that bargain & related more on coercion - which of course you know & lies beneath you reply, I know....
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