Miragem do Emprego

Abstract

Employment always served as a consolation for capitalist economic growth. Remunerations could be highly unsatisfactory, and income concentration never overcome, but at least there was employment to the extent people talked about a society of employment or a society of salaries. Today this has become a mirage. There was never full employment, except sporadically in special periods, as in the early days of the welfare sate. Now, not a chance. Growth without increased employment is part of the global competitive economic structure. Intensive knowledge production and use facilitate the logic of relative surplus value: the worker’s strength is less exploited than his or her intelligence. It is perfectly possible to produce more and better with less labor costs. To find jobs for 10 million workers becomes an impossible task because if this happened the economy would cease to be competitive, as most of those workers do not have adequate qualifications. It seems that neoliberalism is leading us into an impasse.