An affirmation of labor's subordination to capital.

• Author: McDonald, Geoffrey
• Position: The Cry for Jobs

The crisis is now in its fourth year, and everyone agrees that it's all about one thing: jobs. First the politicians: Obama has declared that jobs will be his number one priority for the rest of his term. That is the decisive electoral issue it's the standard according to which people should judge the government's performance. Economic experts of all stripes debate the effectiveness of the two stimulus packages in terms of job creation and offer various competing models for reducing unemployment. And then there are the main players in the economy, the businessmen who always complain about the difficulties they face in their efforts to create jobs: tight credit, tax burdens, overly regulated labor markets and the new health care reform law, implying that their private interest in the use of wage labor is a service to the people.

And finally the majority of the population for whom, of course, everything revolves around their only source of income: while most workers worry quietly about losing their jobs or about their prospects for finding one, others have gone out on the streets with signs reading, "save our jobs!" appealing to the government to do everything it can to save their employers.

In short, all sides seem to agree that employment is the yardstick for measuring the health of the economy and the well-being of the population. It is the overriding goal to which everyone is, or should be, dedicated. That is something everyone takes for granted, even (and perhaps especially) the left, who criticize government, business and the overall spirit of "neoliberalism" for the failure and/or lack of effort to create jobs. As if jobs are not what they really are: a means of profit for the capitalists, a place of exploitation and therefore drudgery for the workers.

That's why I want to step back for a moment and question this seemingly self-evident truism. I will argue that what critics of capitalism need to point out today is that the cry for jobs is not at all self-evident, but absurd and brutal. And that is not only true when workers say "American jobs for American workers!" and other xenophobic slogans. It is more fundamental than that: a society in which work is the ultimate need and desire of workers is one that is hostile to workers. All too many Marxists chime in with this call for work. As Marx once wrote, "to be a productive laborer [in capitalism] is ... not a piece of luck, but a misfortune." This basic insight is crucial, and it is irreconcilable with a cry for jobs. So I am going to develop this insight a bit more, and hope it will be taken more seriously.

First point: Work is not a human need

"The American people need work." That is a phrase that everybody takes for granted, especially in times of high unemployment. In fact, it doesn't get any more absurd...