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Fantods, whole no. 9, Winter 1945

Page 17

EFTY-NINE     page 17

TWILIGHT ECHOES: Chatty and interesting, but, alas, uncommentable.

AGONBITE OF INWIT: Are the newer fen really interested in reading the old classics? I dunno generally, but I do know that back in the days of the MSA, 1939-40, my collection of bound stefzines was available as a lending library to the club. Out of about a dozen members only one ever used this service. Of course at that time the flood of new stef was at its height; mebbe the situation would be different now. The library project has already been discussed in considerable detail in the past (vide Spaceways, 3, vii, 10; 4, iii, 21), with the customary respectable lack of concrete action. Indeed, there's no point in taking any action on such a project until it is show that a demand for such a service actually or potentially exists.
There's a possibility that we might get somewhere with our discussion of capitalism, socialism and the more abundant life if we would but avoid such sweeping generalities as "Wage-slavery is essential to capitalist economy, as we have known it up to now, because it is essentially an economy of scarcity." Scarcity of what? Goods produced? Consumers' purchasing power? Raw materials? Labor? Jobs? Capital? Some of these factors are corollary, others contradictory. The point is that unless we know which are applicable, statements like the above are like a propositional function in logic -- neither true nor false. And suggested remedies based on such statements may turn out to be incomplete solutions or no solution at all.
Am I being too general? Well, then, if we may define "wage slavery" as that economic state wherein the worker cannot leave his job without subjecting himself to privation for an indefinite period, then the most direct cause of such a state of affairs must be a scarcity of jobs and a concomitant surplus of labor. Substituting that in your statement gives us 'Scarcity of jobs is essential to capitalist economy, as we have known it up to now, because it is essentially an economy of scarcity (of jobs).' Since that is begging the question, it's no proof that wage-slavery is an essential of capitalism per se; we must go beyond that for an answer. There we run up against things like technological employment and mass hysteria, like the doings in 1929. If anyone knows the answers to either of these, let's hear about it!
Probably the best example of wage-slavery-to-keep-the-rabble-in-hand is the Bata system which is to catch 'em young, give 'em security (as long as they behave), indoctrinate 'em with the 'right' ideas and carefully insulate 'em from anything likely to suggest independent thought. Which is mediaevalistic and a bad thing, but it did work in Central Europe where there was an agricultural peasantry available for conversion into an industrial peasantry.
There is a great deal more to figuring labor costs than merely adding up what goes into each worker's pay envelope. There are plenty of ways in which an enlightened attitude toward the employee can prove an asset and in the long run actually decrease the labor item in the overhead. The industrialist whose wage scale is substandard has to cope with the fact that he quality of the labor he will get will also be substandard and,at the higher levels of skill, subject to considerable turnover. All of which has a profound influence on production efficiency. Any concern whose wage rates or plant conditions make for an excessive amount of hiring and firing hasn't much survivalue. If you don't believe that you should try breaking in a green factory hand on a new job sometime!

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EFTY-NINE page 17 TWILIGHT ECHOES: Chatty and interesting, but, alas, uncommentable. AGONBITE OF INWIT: Are the newer fen really interested in reading the old classics? I dunno generally, but I do know that back in the days of the MSA, 1939-40, my collection of bound stefzines was available as a lending library to the club. Out of about a dozen members only one ever used this service. Of course at that time the flood of new stef was at its height; mebbe the situation would be different now. The library project has already been discussed in considerable detail in the past (vide Spaceways, 3, vii, 10; 4, iii, 21), with the customary respectable lack of concrete action. Indeed, there's no point in taking any action on such a project until it is show that a demand for such a service actually or potentially exists. There's a possibility that we might get somewhere with our discussion of capitalism, socialism and the more abundant life if we would but avoid such sweeping generalities as "Wage-slavery is essential to capitalist economy, as we have known it up to now, because it is essentially an economy of scarcity." Scarcity of what? Goods produced? Consumers' purchasing power? Raw materials? Labor? Jobs? Capital? Some of these factors are corollary, others contradictory. The point is that unless we know which are applicable, statements like the above are like a propositional function in logic -- neither true nor false. And suggested remedies based on such statements may turn out to be incomplete solutions or no solution at all. Am I being too general? Well, then, if we may define "wage slavery" as that economic state wherein the worker cannot leave his job without subjecting himself to privation for an indefinite period, then the most direct cause of such a state of affairs must be a scarcity of jobs and a concomitant surplus of labor. Substituting that in your statement gives us 'Scarcity of jobs is essential to capitalist economy, as we have known it up to now, because it is essentially an economy of scarcity (of jobs).' Since that is begging the question, it's no proof that wage-slavery is an essential of capitalism per se; we must go beyond that for an answer. There we run up against things like technological employment and mass hysteria, like the doings in 1929. If anyone knows the answers to either of these, let's hear about it! Probably the best example of wage-slavery-to-keep-the-rabble-in-hand is the Bata system which is to catch 'em young, give 'em security (as long as they behave), indoctrinate 'em with the 'right' ideas and carefully insulate 'em from anything likely to suggest independent thought. Which is mediaevalistic and a bad thing, but it did work in Central Europe where there was an agricultural peasantry available for conversion into an industrial peasantry. There is a great deal more to figuring labor costs than merely adding up what goes into each worker's pay envelope. There are plenty of ways in which an enlightened attitude toward the employee can prove an asset and in the long run actually decrease the labor item in the overhead. The industrialist whose wage scale is substandard has to cope with the fact that he quality of the labor he will get will also be substandard and,at the higher levels of skill, subject to considerable turnover. All of which has a profound influence on production efficiency. Any concern whose wage rates or plant conditions make for an excessive amount of hiring and firing hasn't much survivalue. If you don't believe that you should try breaking in a green factory hand on a new job sometime!