The Invisible Handcuffs of Capitalism: How Market Tyranny Stifles the Economy by Stunting Workers by Michael Perelman Page B
Authors: Michael Perelman
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the center of a rich literature that identifies the negative health effects of inequality. 54 Here again, the causal link is stress, which inequality spreads throughout society. This stress harms the rich as well as the poor, suggesting further evidence of the dysfunctionality of capitalism, even by the standards of its intended beneficiaries.
Even though traumatization may harm the rich as well as the poor, the initial impact of a sado-monetarist tightening of the economy strikes the jobs of low-wage workers, pushing people who were just getting by into destitution. Over and above stress-related maladies, the poor often live crowded together in unhealthy conditions without nearby sources of good food. Lack of access to quality medical care compounds the health threats of poverty.
The effect on children is most tragic. Recent neurological research has shown that poverty affects the prefrontal cortex of children’s brains. 55 This part of the brain is critical for problem solving and creativity. The lead author reported that the damage to this part of the brain was comparable to what might occur from a stroke.
Sadly, the enormous losses caused by the harsh efforts to discipline workers in a capitalist society go unnoticed. As the economy continued to sink in the late 2000s, the number of foreclosures and the increase in unemployment were of the same order of magnitude, but public attention was not equally proportioned.
The press has devoted far more attention to the losses that people have suffered because of the crash of the real estate market and the subsequent destruction of their pension funds. For example, a website featured in the
Wall Street Journal
, Greenspan’s Body Count, tallies deaths linked to the real estate bust, but not to the health effects of traumatization. 56 Foreclosures are a tragedy, but so are job losses and the perpetual fear of unemployment.
Earlier forms of organization also had inhuman consequences and defects. One need only think about the widespread use of slavery. Even before slavery took hold in the colonies, the authorities in England applied harsh punishment to their own countrymen who lacked proof of employment. According to a statute of 1572, beggars over the age of fourteen were to be severely flogged and branded with a red-hot iron on the left ear unless someone was willing to take them into service for two years. Repeat offenders over eighteen were to be executed unless someone would take them into service. Third offenses automatically resulted in execution. 57 Although some people had qualms about such brutal methods of organizing labor, for the most part such practices seemed both normal and profitable. Only gradually did people recognize that such crude measures represented a barrier to economic development. Similarly, people were slow to realize that the problem with slavery was not that a few slave owners were cruel and sadistic, but rather that the system as a whole was flawed.
The coercive systems of the past ended not because of humanitarian scruples, but because of their inherent inefficiency. For example, Adam Smith partially rested his case for a market society on the grounds of the counterproductive nature of overt coercion, such as with slavery.
Smith was correct that more subtle market coercion is more effective than crude Procrustean measures. However, he failed to develop his insight more deeply, to realize that harsh measures, whether or not they involve physical brutality, are ultimately self-defeating. The same fate awaits marketplace Procrusteanism.
In the future, people may well look back to the present time, wondering why people were so slow to realize the inherent irrationality ofthe current system of organizing labor. The responsibility for this wakeup call should lie, in part, with economists, who, as the next chapter discusses, have gone out of their way to obliterate considerations of work, workers, and working conditions.
CHAPTER FOUR
Everyday Life
Even though traumatization may harm the rich as well as the poor, the initial impact of a sado-monetarist tightening of the economy strikes the jobs of low-wage workers, pushing people who were just getting by into destitution. Over and above stress-related maladies, the poor often live crowded together in unhealthy conditions without nearby sources of good food. Lack of access to quality medical care compounds the health threats of poverty.
The effect on children is most tragic. Recent neurological research has shown that poverty affects the prefrontal cortex of children’s brains. 55 This part of the brain is critical for problem solving and creativity. The lead author reported that the damage to this part of the brain was comparable to what might occur from a stroke.
Sadly, the enormous losses caused by the harsh efforts to discipline workers in a capitalist society go unnoticed. As the economy continued to sink in the late 2000s, the number of foreclosures and the increase in unemployment were of the same order of magnitude, but public attention was not equally proportioned.
The press has devoted far more attention to the losses that people have suffered because of the crash of the real estate market and the subsequent destruction of their pension funds. For example, a website featured in the
Wall Street Journal
, Greenspan’s Body Count, tallies deaths linked to the real estate bust, but not to the health effects of traumatization. 56 Foreclosures are a tragedy, but so are job losses and the perpetual fear of unemployment.
Earlier forms of organization also had inhuman consequences and defects. One need only think about the widespread use of slavery. Even before slavery took hold in the colonies, the authorities in England applied harsh punishment to their own countrymen who lacked proof of employment. According to a statute of 1572, beggars over the age of fourteen were to be severely flogged and branded with a red-hot iron on the left ear unless someone was willing to take them into service for two years. Repeat offenders over eighteen were to be executed unless someone would take them into service. Third offenses automatically resulted in execution. 57 Although some people had qualms about such brutal methods of organizing labor, for the most part such practices seemed both normal and profitable. Only gradually did people recognize that such crude measures represented a barrier to economic development. Similarly, people were slow to realize that the problem with slavery was not that a few slave owners were cruel and sadistic, but rather that the system as a whole was flawed.
The coercive systems of the past ended not because of humanitarian scruples, but because of their inherent inefficiency. For example, Adam Smith partially rested his case for a market society on the grounds of the counterproductive nature of overt coercion, such as with slavery.
Smith was correct that more subtle market coercion is more effective than crude Procrustean measures. However, he failed to develop his insight more deeply, to realize that harsh measures, whether or not they involve physical brutality, are ultimately self-defeating. The same fate awaits marketplace Procrusteanism.
In the future, people may well look back to the present time, wondering why people were so slow to realize the inherent irrationality ofthe current system of organizing labor. The responsibility for this wakeup call should lie, in part, with economists, who, as the next chapter discusses, have gone out of their way to obliterate considerations of work, workers, and working conditions.
CHAPTER FOUR
Everyday Life
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