Alternative Solutions to Unemployment

The wage slaves and the spenders are the backbone of the capitalist system. The spending is about 67 percent of it; but the money is the cartilage for the system. What is happening with income inequality and austerity is like osteoporosis of the bones, they’re depleting the economy of its strength. Money is now in the hands of just a few families, the 1 percent, while the 99 percent, who are the actual spenders by virtue of their numbers, have less and less money to keep the capitalist system functioning. Karl Marx pointed out some problems with the capitalist system, which, for one, is the hording of cash and the second, is more products made than are purchased. Both of these problems can be solved by raising the minimum wage to no less than $15 to $18 an hour, which will give the spenders the disposable income to buy durable goods and enhance their living standards. Now where do we find jobs that we are losing to robots? One way is to look at our work history for ways we did before. Like when we went from working seven days to five days, twelve hour work days to eight hour work days, instituting child labor laws, which protected the young, but also opened up jobs for adults one did. As Mexico’s billionaire, Carlos Slim advocates, maybe we should look at the four to three day work weeks or even four to five hour work days, and retire at a later age. This would open up jobs. This really isn’t a new concept, some counties offer some employees “4/10s” shifts wherein workers work four days a week for ten hours each day for a full forty hour work week. There are many advantages to less work, such as well rested workers, more time with families, time to further one’s education, time to travel, which would help the recreation industry, less work-related injuries, healthier workers, which would increase the productivity of the workers and could very well be a rub on the costs. If the capitalist system is to be saved it has to serve all the people. There needs to be some changes otherwise we are headed into a black hole that will occur in all countries fighting each other, under the guise of religion, over work, trade, water, oil and minerals. The old International Workers of the World , Marxists, and the Socialists had some of the answers, maybe we should take a look at some of what did or could work. We in the USA only hear or see very little of what is going on in the world so we are not aware of what is happening. There are still a few publications in circulation, like Foreign Affairs magazine, Al Jazeera, and The Militant.