社科要从娃娃抓起.docx

470Chapter 15 Economies, work and consumption2 Pursuit of personal profit. A capitalist societyencourages the accumulation of private propertyand defines a profit-minded orientation as naturaland simply a matter of doing business. Theclassical Scottish Enlightenment economist AdamSmith (172390) (see Chapter 1) claimed that theindividual pursuit of self-interest helps an entiresociety prosper (1937: 508; orig. 1776). Othersargue that it leads to the exploitation of the mass bythe few, and consolidates a class system.3 Free competition, consumer sovereignty and markets.A purely capitalist economy would operate with nogovernment interference, sometimes called a laissez-faire approach. Adam Smith contended that a freelycompetitive economy regulates itself by theinvisible hand of the laws of supply and demand.The market and neo-liberalismAdam Smith maintained that the market system isdominated by consumers who select goods and servicesthat offer the greatest value. Producers compete withone another by providing the highest-quality goodsand services at the lowest possible price. Thus, whileentrepreneurs are motivated by personal gain, everyonebenefits from more efficient production and ever-increasing value. In Smiths time-honoured phrase,from narrow self-interest comes the greatest good forthe greatest number of people. Government control ofan economy would inevitably upset the complexmarket system, reducing producer motivation,diminishing the quantity and quality of goodsproduced, and short-changing consumers.Pure, ideal capitalism is non-existent. The UnitedStates may have the purest form private markets aremore extensive than in Europe yet even there theguiding hand of government does play a role ineconomic affairs. Through taxation and variousregulatory agencies, the government influences whatcompanies produce, the quality and costs ofmerchandise, the products businesses import andexport, and the consumption and conservation ofnatural resources. The federal government also ownsand operates a host of businesses, including the USPostal Service, the Amtrak railway system and theNuclear Regulatory Commission (which conductsatomic research and produces nuclear materials). Theentire US military is also government-operated. Federalofficials may step in to prevent the collapse ofbusinesses, as in the bailout of the savings and loanindustry. Further, government policies mandateminimum wage levels, enforce workplace safetystandards, regulate corporate mergers, provide farmprice supports, and funnel income in the form of socialsecurity, public assistance, student loans and veteransbenefits to a majority of people.Capitalism comes in many forms: Japan and theUnited States, for instance, work very differently.Generally, modern capitalism has moved through threephases. The first was a liberal capitalism, whichdominated Britain and the United States in the earlyand middle nineteenth century and involved a freemarket, a facilitative state and a legal frameworkwhich helps to maintain capitalism. Second was anorganised capitalism, which involved an administeredmarket and a more directive state. There was, forexample, in the UK between 1946 and 1979 much morestate intervention as governments often shapedeconomic policies. More recently a disorganised/post-Fordist capitalism has emerged, which involves anincrease in the service sector, more global anddispersed operations and a decline of nation states(Lash and Urry, 1987; and see above).SocialismSocialism is an economic system in which naturalresources and the means of producing goods and servicesare collectively owned. In its ideal form, a socialisteconomy opposes each of the three characteristics ofcapitalism just described.1 Collective ownership of property. An economy issocialist to the extent that it limits the right toprivate property, especially property used inproducing goods and services. Laws prohibitingprivate ownership of property are designed to makehousing and other goods available to all, not just tothose with the most money. Karl Marx asserted thatprivate ownership of productive property spawnssocial classes as it generates an economic elite.Socialism, then, seeks to lessen economic inequalitywhile forging a classless society.2 Pursuit of collective goals. The individualistic pursuitof profit also stands at odds with the collectiveorientation of socialism. Socialist values and normscondemn what capitalists celebrate as theentrepreneurial spirit. For this reason, privatetrading is branded as illegal black market activity.3 Government control of the economy. Socialism rejectsthe idea that a free-market economy regulates itself.Instead of a laissez-faire approach, socialistEconomies: differing kinds471governments oversee a centrally controlled orcommand economy. Socialism also rejects the ideathat consumers guide capitalist production. Fromthis point of view, consumers lack the informationnecessary to evaluate products and are manipulatedby advertising to buy what is profitable for factoryowners rather than what they, as consumers,genuinely need. Commercial advertising thus playslittle role in socialist economies.The Peoples Republic of China and a number ofnations in Asia, Africa and Latin America some twodozen in all model their economies on socialism,placing almost all wealth-generating property understate control (McColm et al., 1991). The extent ofworld socialism has declined in recent years, however,as societies in Eastern Europe and the former SovietUnion have forged new economic systems increasingthe sway of market forces.Socialism and communismSome people equate the terms socialism andcommunism. More precisely, as the ideal spirit ofsocialism, communism is an economic and politicalsystem in which all members of a society are sociallyequal. Karl Marx viewed socialism as a transitory stageon the path towards the ideal of a communist societythat had abolished all class divisions. In many socialistsocieties today, the dominant political party describesitself as communist, but nowhere has the purecommunist goal been achieved.Why? For one thing, social stratification involvesdifferences of power as well as wealth. Socialist societieshave generally succeeded in reducing disparities inwealth only through expanding governmentbureaucracies and subjecting the population toextensive regulation. In the process, government hasnot withered away as Karl Marx imagined. On thecontrary, socialist political elites have usually gainedenormous power and privilege. Marx would probablyhave agreed that such a society is a utopia (from Greekwords meaning not a place). Yet Marx consideredcommunism a worthy goal and might well havedisparaged reputedly Marxist societies such as NorthKorea, the former Soviet Union, the Peoples Republicof China and Cuba for falling far short of his ideal.Capitalism and socialism: the big issuesWhich economic system works best? In practice, mostsocieties now work from a mix of capitalism andsocialism to different degrees, although capitalism hasbecome stronger and stronger. In 1989 and 1990, thenations of Eastern Europe (seized by the Soviet Unionafter the Second World War) rejected their socialistregimes. And today, China is also moving towards amarket economy. But what was it like before thesedramatic changes? We can look at this through threedimensions: economic productivity (or GDP),economic equality and civil liberties.1 Economic productivityImportant elements of GDP, such as the proportion ofthe international export market a country controls,varied dramatically among capitalist countries. As agroup, however, capitalist countries generated moregoods and services than socialist countries. Averagingthe economic output of industrialised nations at theend of the 1980s yielded a per capita GDP of about US$13,500. The comparable figure for the former SovietUnion and the nations of Eastern Europe was about US$5,000. This means that capitalist countriesoutproduced socialist nations by a ratio of 2.7 to 1(UNDP, 1990).2 Economic equalityHow resources are distributed within a society standsas a second crucial issue. A comparative studycompleted in the mid-1970s calculated income ratiosby comparing the earnings of the richest 5 per cent ofthe population and the poorest 5 per cent (Wiles,1977). This research found that societies withpredominantly capitalist economies had an incomeratio of about 10 to 1; the corresponding figure forsocialist countries was 5 to 1. This comparison ofeconomic performance reveals that capitalist economiesproduced a higher overall standard of living but alsogenerated greater income disparity. Or, put otherwise,socialist economies created less income disparity butoffered a lower overall standard of living.3 Civil liberties and personal freedomA third issue to consider in evaluating socialism andcapitalism is the personal freedom and civil libertieseach offers its citizen. Capitalism emphasises freedom topursue ones self-interest. It depends on the freedom ofproducers and consumers to interact in a free market,with minumum interference by the state. By contrast,socialist societies emphasise freedom from basic wants.Equality is the goal which requires state intervention in472Chapter 15 Economies, work and consumptionthe economy, and this in turn limits some of thechoices of citizens. There are then major tensionsbetween freedom from and freedom to, betweenfreedom and equality.This tension has not been resolved between the twosystems. In the capitalist West, many freedoms areostensibly guaranteed, but are these freedoms worth asmuch to a poor person as a rich one? On the otherhand, in Cuba or North Korea two of the lastremaining socialist states economic equality is boughtat the expense of the rights of people to expressthemselves freely.Twenty-first century mutantsAt the start of the twenty-first century, capitalism is tobe found througout the world. And it is usually seen asthe dominant contemporary form of economicorganisation. It does, however, take on a range ofdifferent forms, shaped by history, governments (seeChapter 16) and cultures (see Chapter 5). For example,three kinds are regularly distinguished as:transportation, the mass media and healthcare. InSweden and Italy, about 12 per cent of economicproduction is state controlled or nationalised. Thatleaves most industry in private hands, but subject toextensive government regulation. High taxation (aimedespecially at the rich) funds various social welfareprogrammes, transferring wealth to less-advantagedmembers of society.Along the Pacific Rim, Japan, South Korea andSingapore, yet another blend of capitalism andsocialism is found: state capitalism: an economic andpolitical system in which companies are privately ownedthough they cooperate closely with the government.Systems of state capitalism are all capitalist nations, buttheir governments work closely with large companies,supplying financial assistance or controlling imports offoreign products to help businesses function ascompetitively as possible in world markets. During thiscentury, China has also conspicuously opened itself tothe market system while still keeping central statecontrol (see Chapter 26).Eastern Europe also has since the fall of the oldsocialist regimes in the late 1980s (including theGerman Democratic Republic (GDR), Czechoslovakia,GGGNeo-liberal market capitalism decentralised, openmarkets. An anti-trust or union tradition. Fluidcapital markets. Individualism is key. Minimumstate involvement and planning. Maximising returnsto owners of capital. Linked with liberal democracypolitical system, e.g. preodminantly United States,United Kingdom to a lesser extent (as it is alsoshaped by the EU see social market, below).Social-market capitalism social partnerships, moreorganised markets, dedicated bank-centred capitalmarkets. State interventions. Linked with socialdemocracy, e.g. much of Western Europe andScandinavian countries.Developmental capitalism guided markets, tightbusiness networks, strong bureaucracy, highlytechnological, reciprocity between state and firms. Stateplays quite a strong role. Linked with developmentaldemocracy, e.g. Japan and new industrialising societiesand ASEAN. (Dicken, 2004: 128)Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) have movedtowards market-led or capitalist systems. In 1992, theSoviet Union itself dissolved. Ten years later, three-quarters of state enterprises were partly or entirelyunder private ownership (Montaigne, 2001). Therewere many reasons for these sweeping changes. In part,socialist economies underproduced compared tocapitalist societies and often living standards were verylow. And while members were formally equal, theyoften experienced large restrictions on freedom andheavy-handed states which regulated the media. Newelites based on power usually appeared.So far the market reforms in Eastern Europe are veryuneven. Some countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic)are faring well; others (such as the Russian Federationitself) have brought out many of the weakest points ofcapitalism, with growing poverty and inequality, highcompetitiveness and social decline (Buraway, 1997).To conclude: countries in East Asia, Western Europe,Eastern Europe and elsewhere illustrate that there areMany of the nations of Western Europe includingSweden and Italy have merged socialist economicpolicies with a democratic political system. Analystscall this democratic socialism, an economic andpolitical system that combines significant governmentcontrol of the economy with free elections. Underdemocratic socialism, the government owns some ofthe largest industries and services, such asmany ways in which governments and companies canwork cooperatively. Blends of socialism and capitalismare becoming a common pattern.The Third Way?During the 1990s, an approach called the Third Waywas advocated. This was the basis of the UKEconomies: differing kinds473government from 1997, and to a lesser extent underDemocratic President Bill Clinton (19922000).Anthony Giddens suggests this is a framework thatadapts politics to a changed world, transcending old-styledemocracy and neo-liberalism (Giddens, 1998: 26). As itmay be more of a political system than an economicone, we will leave our discussion of this to Chapter 16.Global capitalism: triumphor crisis?For many, then, it looks as if capitalism is here to stay: itis seen as the dominant (and for many, the only way) oforganising the economy across the world. There are nowvery few societies that support a strict socialist/communist model (North Korea, Cuba and a few states inAfrica and Latin America). All rivals are usuallydismissed. Nowhere is this view clearer than in FrancisFukuyamas much discussed book The End of History(1989). For him, history came to an end with the triumphof Western capitalism. The Soviet Bloc had collapsed andwe are now living in an age of permanent capitalism.By contrast, the political philosopher John Gray inhis book False Dawn (2002) disagrees with this. Heargues that the unfettered global free market economyis not likely to stay. In the long run of world history,contemporary capitalism will be seen as a mere blip.With modern capitalism we increasingly find socialinstability, growing social inequalities and economicunpredictability across the world. This may not betenable into the distant future. Indeed, he argues that“the free market is a rare, short-lived phenomenon, aspecific product of English nineteenth-century socialengineering, from whose cycles of boom and bust westill have much to learn.Gray does not, however, see the future as bringing areturn to the socialist models of the past. Indeed, atpresent, he offers few solutions to the deepeninginternational anarchy: free markets spiral out ofcontrol. At the start of the twenty-first century, it isunclear to Gray and many others just which directionour economies are now heading.Thedegradationand alienationof work in theWestern worldMany people have spoken upabout the conditions of work in allcountries of the world. In film, innovels, and in manyautobiographies, you can find thevoices of people talking about theirwork experiences. In this chapter,we have two boxes to capture this.Here we look at two studies ofWestern voices. In the next box, welook at the voice of a Guatemalangirl worker. Look at websites tofind many other voices.Oral historyIn the 1970s, the oral historianStuds Terkel gathered manyinterviews of the experience ofwork. Many of these showed howdull, repetitive jobs can generatealienation for men and women.Phil Stallings was a27-year-old car worker in a Fordassembly plant in Chicago.I start the automobile, thefirst welds. From there it goesto another line, where thefloors put on, the roof, thetrunk, the hood, the doors.Then its put on a frame.There is hundreds of lines. . . .I stand in one spot, abouttwo- or three-feet area, allnight. The only ti