Page 159 - Culture Society and Economy

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CULTURE, SOCIETY AND ECONOMY

all, be implemented on a phased basis in the developed capitalist societies
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which can afford it, has great merit. The point is that, in the context of
existing trends towards automation and productivity growth, it is difficult
to see how huge increases in the provision of employment opportunities
will arise in either the public or the private sectors of the highly developed
countries. I would argue that this will be the case even if more balanced
trade and financial policies are pursued and there is a substantial increase
in the investment in national social and physical infrastructure. The reser-
vations to an annual basic income expressed by Gorz and discussed by
Howard – that this will cut the link between work and income, lead to a
decline of the work ethic and create serious divisions in society between
those who work and those who receive public support – are important
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ones but not, in the end, convincing. This is because, in the first place,
the provision of an annual basic income would be universalized to all
citizens as an entitlement, irrespective of socio-economic status. Second,
the day when modern capitalist society depended on the work ethic
to function has long passed. Moreover, the argument of Gorz that ‘You
cannot become a member of any community if you have no obligation
whatsoever towards it. Being a member of a group means that you can
rely on the others, but also that they can rely on you’ is true but hardly
conclusive. 18
One could argue that the entire jet-setting global rentier class which is
larger than ever in capitalist society and central to its narcissistic cos-
mopolitan culture, gives the lie to this rather old-fashioned Protestant idea.
Further, there is nothing which says that one’s contribution to society
must take the form of wage labor. On the contrary, the goal of the entire
socialist tradition is to emancipate people from the constraints of wage
labor and to enable them to develop themselves in a many-sided way, out-
side of the necessities which earning a living inevitably impose. It is hard
to see how the traditional socialist ideal of the cultured and many-sided
individual who overcomes the division of labor could be accomplished
unless some kind of basic annual income becomes a reality wherever it
is economically feasible. In any event, a critical part of the minimum anti-
globalization program must be the thorough overhaul of the system of
social provision, to restore universal health care and re-finance public
education at the high levels of funding which it requires.
In terms of a maximum program, the proposal would be for the devel-
opment of a mixed economy, with the state controlling the main financial
institutions on which both public and private investment would depend.
Many of the largest enterprises in a developed economy would have
to be placed under public ownership. Medium-sized and smaller firms

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