Machines should benefit us all, not just bosses
Joe Lo, from Haringey Left Unity, discusses the issue of machinery and argues for economic democracy.
The premise that machines are taking over the world has been common in science fiction for decades. Bladerunner, Doctor Who, I Robot, Artificial Intelligence. The list is endless. Like all good science fiction premises however these films exaggerate a real and current trend which is that, since the industrial revolution, machinery has become increasingly prevalent in industry and has often taken the place of human labourers. Recent examples of this are self-service check-outs ousting shop assistants, unmanned aerial vehicles replacing pilots, oyster card readers sending bus conductors to the job centre and 3-D printers looking set to replace all sorts of factory workers.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s been going on since capitalism was created. In the 1810s, the Luddites smashed new factory machinery that was making them redundant. In 1834, Karl Marx commented, “the Bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production”. Capitalism has always encouraged innovation and the development of labour-saving machinery, often at the expense of workers.
This is great news for business owners as costs are cut dramatically and increases the UK’s “productivity” and “competitiveness”, as conventionally measured. Less staff are needed so there are lower wage bills for bosses and the staff that remain can produce more with the help of our new robotic friends. It’s not great news however for the workers who are made unemployed or for the people these newly-unemployed people go on to compete against for jobs.
So what’s the solution? In “I Robot”, Will Smith’s character lambasts the owner of USR robotics company: ‘I have an idea for one of your commercials: You could see a carpenter, making a beautiful chair, and then one of your robots comes in, and makes a better chair, twice as fast. And then you super-impose on the screen: “USR. Shittin’ on the little guy.” That would be the fade out.’ A fair point from the Fresh Prince but the CEO has a convincing response: “I suppose your father lost his job to a robot. I don’t know, maybe you would have simply banned the Internet to keep the libraries open?”, the CEO is presenting us with a false dichotomy between Capitalist innovation and stone-age Ludditism.
The third option is to distribute the rewards of innovation amongst the workforce. This can be done by encouraging workers’ co-operatives. Under a capitalist system of ownership, labour-saving machinery is used to sack people and cut their paid hours. Under a co-operative system of ownership, the same machinery could be used to give all the workers a day off with no decrease in their wages. To see the advantages of labour-saving machinery we have to look not at a privately-owned workplace but into peoples’ homes. Washing machines, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers have saved people work and given them more leisure time. This is how it should be in the workplace.
This is not an unachievable dream. The Green Party has a policy that, in the unlikely event that it is invited to form a government, it would give workers a right to buy out their companies with funds from a Green National Investment Bank. Left Unity should do the same. A society where machines work for humanity, not just for bosses, is what we should be fighting for.
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8 responses to “Machines should benefit us all, not just bosses”
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I think that the ideas of ken Coates and Tony Topham from the 1970’s on socially useful production and workers control might be worth a revisit, certainly as a starting point for making machines work for humanity – their basic idea was converting technology used for arms production into technology that could benefit the wider society by producing things such as dialysis machines. What would that idea look like today, particularly for those whose potential is being blighted by redundancy and zero hours contracts? In the early 80’s we predicted correctly that computer technology could involve a wider audience in campaigns and political decision making (we didnt expect the glut of violent and misygonist games!) but( some of us) naively assumed that more leisure time was inherently a good thing
If socially useful technology liberates workers in terms of time, what will they do with it? LU certainly has to involve itself in local campaigns for leisure facilities and for far more participation in all aspects of ‘community life’ but we need to go wider than that and pose alternatives to the current education system that is just concerned with a narrow view of what is ‘academic’ and consequently of value. Education should help us all realise our potential!
At last, an urgent debate about the continuous loss of jobs, not only because of neo-liberal ideologically driven “Austerity” but because of automation, digitisation etc. The upshot is for a democratic economy – an economy which serves society and not the other way around. The last Labour Government INCREASED the pension age, while a million 16- 20 year olds unemployed. Demands for a shorter working week, end all casualisation of work; the citizen’s income in there as well. And seriously call to question: what do we get out of the current economy?
Given the rise of Alsheimer’s it is probably a bad idea for most of us to stop working and retire!
We all need to perform a useful role to society… that is what we should strive for.
Some form of social ownership of the means of production could achieve fair outcomes I think. Business owners to stay on as managers. Managers to become workers and paid accordingly. Maximum wage set at a low multiple of minimum wage.
Even bankers could be rehabilitated under these conditions!
The big problem is a population that thrives on individualism rather than community. The worrying about taxes to pay for them, i.e. the old infirm the sick and unemployed. Then you have the second problem of why should I pay this does not benefit me. Until communication of the real cost of ignoring problems now and how the general population is really effected by this ignorance.
My point is a corporate culture has become so excepted that high street stores are slowly becoming unaffordable and again your third problem that is technological is slowly reducing the need for manpower. Therefore, it now slowly dawns on us that ignoring the problems and what has this got to do with me and why should I pay for them, eventually ends up its you who now becomes one of them. Now you are one of them looking at the working class and asking which way to premier inn and where’s the food bank ?
It’s time to find solutions now before your industry or job is next.
This fits very well into the vision of what socialism should be like that I am trying to develop within Left Unity – see the article (in Two Parts) on the Home Page near this.
Loss of jobs in the UK is a result of threats to profit rather than shortage of need.There is a myth that machines and automation will make us all redundant. but new needs and solutions arise all the time and generate more work opportunities. There is no shortage of work to be done but it is not possible in the present economic framework to organise people to do this work. Years ago I lived in a fishing town and was curious about the heaps of fresh fish behind the fish market and wondered why it could not be given to people to eat rather than going for fishmeal. Someone took it up with the local MP ( Jim Prior to give you an idea of date and location) who said it could not be given away or sold at a reduced price because that would upset the market. Getting necessary work done in the UK is a similar problem related to free market economics. If you dont have any money your jobs do not get done for you. Community based action for individuals by Left Unity could make a start on this now – no need to wait for elections or for the debates in Left Unity to be resolved.
Many years ago when voice recognition and Microsoft Word came into existing, I confidently predicted that secretaries would be made redundant. Two decades on and I find that I need at least two to keep going…. The nature of work is changing and will continue to change. 3D printing will NOT replace standard forms of manufacture. It is not particularly cheap or fast. Rather it will allow us to do things that we cannot presently do and thus add to our overall wealth.
Those who read the Ray (Brilliant but mad) Kurzweil concepts on the singularity will perhaps worry about the point at which artificial intelligence and robotics can truly replace human beings. My counter argument is that this will come at a cost. The most advanced robots such as BigDog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZPRsrwumQ), and the most advanced computer systems such as Japan’s K supercomputer (http://www.top500.org/blog/an-83000-processor-supercomputer-can-only-match-1-of-your-brain/) are many many orders of magnitude less efficient than biology. We may end up finding that in an increasingly resource poor world, that we are fundamentally the most efficient systems to govern our own existence.