Unemployment in Capitalist, Communist, and Post-communist Economies

Unemployment in Capitalist, Communist, and Post-communist Economies
Author: J. L. Porket
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 230
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780312124847

In this book Dr Porket argues that no modern economy can escape open unemployment as long as free labour and a free labour market exist. He argues, too, that in any modern economy there exists a tension between economic individualism and economic collectivism, but that market forces cannot forever be denied. While Part I examines open and hidden unemployment in capitalist market economies and socialist command economies prior to 1989, Part II concentrates on the issue of unemployment in post-communist economies between 1989 and the end of 1993. Finally, Part III summarizes, re-examines and expands on those selected dimensions of the issue of unemployment that are deemed currently to be relevant to both Western and post-communist economies. Although the book is primarily about unemployment, open as well as hidden, it is also concerned with economic systems and their transformation and, hence, about the role of the visible hand (the state) in the economy.

Capitalism and Disability

Capitalism and Disability
Author: Marta Russell
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1608467163

Spread out over many years and many different publications, the late author and activist Marta Russell wrote a number of groundbreaking and insightful essays on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism. In this volume, Russell’s various essays are brought together in one place in order to provide a useful and expansive resource to those interested in better understanding the ways in which the modern phenomenon of disability is shaped by capitalist economic and social relations. The essays range in analysis from the theoretical to the topical, including but not limited to: the emergence of disability as a “human category” rooted in the rise of industrial capitalism and the transformation of the conditions of work, family, and society corresponding thereto; a critique of the shortcomings of a purely “civil rights approach” to addressing the persistence of disability oppression in the economic sphere, with a particular focus on the legacy of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; an examination of the changing position of disabled people within the overall system of capitalist production utilizing the Marxist economic concepts of the reserve army of the unemployed, the labor theory of value, and the exploitation of wage-labor; the effects of neoliberal capitalist policies on the living conditions and social position of disabled people as it pertains to welfare, income assistance, health care, and other social security programs; imperialism and war as a factor in the further oppression and immiseration of disabled people within the United States and globally; and the need to build unity against the divisive tendencies which hide the common economic interest shared between disabled people and the often highly-exploited direct care workers who provide services to the former.

A World without Capitalism?

A World without Capitalism?
Author: Christian W. Chun
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2021-12-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000484467

In this book, Christian W. Chun examines the ways in which identities, discourses, and topographies of both capitalist and anti-capitalist imaginaries and realities are embodied in the everyday practices of people. A World without Capitalism? is a sociolinguistic ethnography that explores the heretofore limited research in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics on the discursive and materialized representations and enactments of capitalism. Engaging across disciplinary fields, including applied linguistics, ethnography, political economy, philosophy, and cultural studies, Chun investigates in ethnographic detail how capitalism does and does not pervade people’s everyday experiences. This book aims to further contribute to a much-needed understanding of how discourses operate in the co-constructions of capitalist and anti-capitalist imaginaries and instantiated realities and practices as narrated, lived, and embodied by people and material artifacts. This book is vital reading for students and researchers working in the fields of applied linguistics, discourse analysis, and cultural studies, as well as those interested in understanding capitalism and questioning how to live beyond it.

MACROECONOMICS BEYOND THE NAIRU

MACROECONOMICS BEYOND THE NAIRU
Author: Servaas Storm
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2012-01-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674062276

The authors make a strong case that a stable non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU), independent of macroeconomic policy, does not exist. Consequently, government decisions based on the NAIRU are not only misguided but have huge and avoidable social costs, namely, high unemployment and sustained inequality.

Capitalism on Edge

Capitalism on Edge
Author: Albena Azmanova
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2020-01-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231530609

The wake of the financial crisis has inspired hopes for dramatic change and stirred visions of capitalism’s terminal collapse. Yet capitalism is not on its deathbed, utopia is not in our future, and revolution is not in the cards. In Capitalism on Edge, Albena Azmanova demonstrates that radical progressive change is still attainable, but it must come from an unexpected direction. Azmanova’s new critique of capitalism focuses on the competitive pursuit of profit rather than on forms of ownership and patterns of wealth distribution. She contends that neoliberal capitalism has mutated into a new form—precarity capitalism—marked by the emergence of a precarious multitude. Widespread economic insecurity ails the 99 percent across differences in income, education, and professional occupation; it is the underlying cause of such diverse hardships as work-related stress and chronic unemployment. In response, Azmanova calls for forging a broad alliance of strange bedfellows whose discontent would challenge not only capitalism’s unfair outcomes but also the drive for profit at its core. To achieve this synthesis, progressive forces need to go beyond the old ideological certitudes of, on the left, fighting inequality and, on the right, increasing competition. Azmanova details reforms that would enable a dramatic transformation of the current system without a revolutionary break. An iconoclastic critique of left orthodoxy, Capitalism on Edge confronts the intellectual and political impasses of our time to discern a new path of emancipation.

Maturity and Stagnation in American Capitalism

Maturity and Stagnation in American Capitalism
Author: Josef Steindl
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 275
Release: 1976
Genre: History
ISBN: 0853453187

Details a pattern of development and investment in the American economy that produces diminished growth and increased stagnation.

Keynes and Marx

Keynes and Marx
Author: Bill Dunn
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2021-07-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1526154919

Keynes was an elitist and pro-capitalist economist, whom the left should embrace with caution. But his analysis provides a concreteness missing from Marx and engages with critical issues of the modern world that Marx could not have foreseen. This book argues that a critical Marxist engagement can simultaneously increase the power of Keynes’s insight and enrich Marxism. To understand Keynes, whose work is liberally invoked but seldom read, Dunn explores him in the context of the extraordinary times in which he lived, his philosophy, and his politics. By offering a detailed overview of Keynes’s critique of mainstream economics and General Theory, Dunn argues that Keynes provides an enduringly valuable critique of orthodoxy. The book develops a Marxist appropriation of Keynes’s insights, arguing that a Marxist analysis of unemployment, capital and the role of the state can be enriched through such a critical engagement. The point is to change the world, not just to understand it. Thus the book considers the prospects of returning to Keynes, critically reviewing the practices that have come to be known as ‘Keynesianism’ and the limits of the theoretical traditions that have made claim to his legacy.

Capitalism, Alone

Capitalism, Alone
Author: Branko Milanovic
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674260309

For the first time in history, the globe is dominated by one economic system. Capitalism prevails because it delivers prosperity and meets desires for autonomy. But it also is unstable and morally defective. Surveying the varieties and futures of capitalism, Branko Milanovic offers creative solutions to improve a system that isn’t going anywhere.

Marx, Women, and Capitalist Social Reproduction

Marx, Women, and Capitalist Social Reproduction
Author: Martha E. Giménez
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 412
Release: 2018-10-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9004291563

In Marx, Women and Capitalist Social Reproduction, Martha E. Gimenez offers a distinctive perspective on social reproduction which posits that the relations of production determine the relations of social reproduction, and links the effects of class exploitation and location to forms of oppression predominantly theorised in terms of identity. Grounding her analysis on Marx’s theory and methodology, Gimenez examines the relationship between class, reproduction and the oppression of women in different contexts such as the reproduction of labour power, domestic labour, feminisation of poverty, and reproductive technologies. Because most women and men, whether members of dominant or oppressed groups, are working class, she argues that the future of feminist politics is inextricably tied to class politics and the fate of capitalism.

Stakeholder Capitalism

Stakeholder Capitalism
Author: Klaus Schwab
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2021-01-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119756138

Reimagining our global economy so it becomes more sustainable and prosperous for all Our global economic system is broken. But we can replace the current picture of global upheaval, unsustainability, and uncertainty with one of an economy that works for all people, and the planet. First, we must eliminate rising income inequality within societies where productivity and wage growth has slowed. Second, we must reduce the dampening effect of monopoly market power wielded by large corporations on innovation and productivity gains. And finally, the short-sighted exploitation of natural resources that is corroding the environment and affecting the lives of many for the worse must end. The debate over the causes of the broken economy—laissez-faire government, poorly managed globalization, the rise of technology in favor of the few, or yet another reason—is wide open. Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet argues convincingly that if we don't start with recognizing the true shape of our problems, our current system will continue to fail us. To help us see our challenges more clearly, Schwab—the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum—looks for the real causes of our system's shortcomings, and for solutions in best practices from around the world in places as diverse as China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Singapore. And in doing so, Schwab finds emerging examples of new ways of doing things that provide grounds for hope, including: Individual agency: how countries and policies can make a difference against large external forces A clearly defined social contract: agreement on shared values and goals allows government, business, and individuals to produce the most optimal outcomes Planning for future generations: short-sighted presentism harms our shared future, and that of those yet to be born Better measures of economic success: move beyond a myopic focus on GDP to more complete, human-scaled measures of societal flourishing By accurately describing our real situation, Stakeholder Capitalism is able to pinpoint achievable ways to deal with our problems. Chapter by chapter, Professor Schwab shows us that there are ways for everyone at all levels of society to reshape the broken pieces of the global economy and—country by country, company by company, and citizen by citizen—glue them back together in a way that benefits us all.