Workers are Costly Burderns

Today I spoke with a coworker who has been working with corporate clients in a particular foreign country (for confidentiality reasons, I'm trying to give as few details as possible). The coworker expressed surprise at the different attitude exhibited in this country toward their employees. In essence, they view their employees as costs, and try to minimize the costs as much as possible. Education and training, for example, is not quite as popular there as in the U.S. because it is perceived to not have much bang for the buck.

I tried (as much as it is possible in an office setting to express "anti-capitalist" ideas.... I tread lightly) to suggest that this particular attitude may not be confined to that one particular foreign country.

In fact, it is the quintessential attitude of capitalism. As capitalism is defined by wage labor, labor is central to profitability in a capitalist system. A capitalist profits only to the extent that they can obtain surplus labor (labor in excess of what they are paying). Technology, contrary to popular belief, does not increase profitability in the long run; in fact, it decreases the rate of profitability as it decreases the proportion of human labor embedded in a product (and thus, decreases the possible surplus labor embedded in a product). A capitalist may try to maintain profitability by creating a monopoly. However, monopolies tend to be difficult to sustain the in the long run. At the foundation, profitability derives from keeping the cost of labor low.

What this means is that, it is absolutely a capitalist's most basic and primary interest to contain the cost of labor. This can be accomplished by preventing the rise of wages parallel to inflation (a more systemic solution); organizing and managing the workplace to increase productivity; simply not paying employees for all hours worked (a common complaint leveled against some major corporations like Walmart); and trying to minimize "extra" costs (benefits, overtime, training, etc.). It is due to the nature of capitalism, where labor is a major component of the "input" side of the equation, that employees are viewed as "costs."

If this seems strange or nonapplicable in the U.S., it is because a large portion of the U.S. occupies a more specialized role in the global capitalist system, and the consent of a majority of its citizens to capitalist ideology is necessary for the functioning of the system.  In other words, it is more necessary in the U.S. and other industrial powers to maintain an illusion of capitalism that conceals what is really going on, than in places where the sweatshop and the plantation are more blatant.  The consent of Western and middle and professional classes is the lynchpin to the whole system.