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Scientific paper

Text

THE 5-HOUR WEEK

Author:
Jürgen Manneck

Entry type:
Scientific paper

Year of publication:
2014

Publishers:
Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

Language:
English

Abstract: Why is global capitalism incapable of providing the millions of unemployed with work? From a social perspective, enormous wealth is simply running through our fingers, since many people are forced into unemployment by the mechanisms of capitalism. In 1995 a conference of 500 top managers, politicians and economists came to the conclusion that at the start of the 21st centruy only one-fifth of the world’s population would be necessary for the production of goods and services (Hans-Peter Martin, EU-Parlementarian, Harald Schumann, Spiegel-Editor, Die Globalisierungsfall ISBN: 3-499-60450-7, page 12). According to this there is a fortune in goods and services that is left unrealized due to unemployment—general prosperity is hindered by capitalism! Property-based economies and commodity-oriented trade turn labor surpluses into the curse of the unemployed, for supply and demand govern the price of every ware. Since labor cannot simply be removed from the market like other commodities merciless competition and a decline in the price of human labor follows. Wage-dumping and unemployment follow.

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