: There has been a lot of talk about socialistic 'liberty in the workplace,' voluntary labor, and 'ad hocary' on the debate board of late. I haven't been around in a long time, since college is a bit higher on my list of priorities.
: It seems that such notions have originated with Red Deathy's utopian socialism, a socialistic vision eagerly embraced by anarchists, liberals, even procapitalists (with some qualifications).
Just my opinion, but utopia on this planet will never exist as long as people are sinful. The world as God intended it was perfect and fortunately heaven is.
: Let us take the manufacture of motor vehicles as an example of industralized activity.
I find it interesting that pro-Communist and socialist arguments continue to focus on industrialization. The Industrial Revolution is long done and gone. We're in the Internet Revolution now and if you haven't noticed, technology will employ many times more people in the future than industry, especially in the U.S. where you have millions of highly educated people and a continued flight of manufacturing labor leaving the U.S. for other countries with lower (or no) minimum wage. Of course, everyone here will take the fact that Corporate America (most notably Nike) and use it as more coal to burn the Communist fire. Now why aren't the foreign countries doing something about it? They could initiate some sort of minimum wage and workplace safety standards like the U.S. has. Perhaps because most people overseas don't have the freedom of speech that enabled those changes to take place here? Anyway, to the point:
: There are many stages in such a process. There are many individuals required to effect these many stages. Indeed, the socialized character of manufacturing motor vehicles necessitates an assembly-line.
: There is a worker to put on doors; there is another putting on windshields. There are individuals who apply paint; there are individals who apply finish to the paint. Etc., etc.
: If even ONE worker is not at the required work station, all production halts. Such is the character of the assembly-line; such is the nature of industrialized labor.
You sound like you're talking about Henry Ford's assembly line, not the modern assembly line of today. Workers don't do all that anymore. As a matter of fact, I doubt hardly a hand even touches a car as it goes down the assembly line anymore. Computers and machines take car of all that... a staff is only needed for maintenance and operation of the machines. Obviously, that saves a lot of labor, making production more efficient and the end product can be sold for less while making the same profit. Or sold for the same amount and making a larger profit for the company's stockholders. The market will determine the price of the car. And again, as I said before, how about a more nineties example? How about the home-based e-business that operates on a staff that can be counted on one hand?
: We can easily see here how 'liberty in the workplace' would eradicate the industrial process itself---the very process of labor (socialized labor) that is a predicate of socialism ITSELF.
: Thus 'liberty in the workplace' would signal a RETURN to preindustrial labor. Which is also known as scarcity and poverty.
: Call 'liberty in the workplace' anarchy. But don't call it socialism.
