Labour Aristocracy

Posting mode: Reply [Return]
Name
Options
Subject	Spoiler Image
Comment
Flag
File
Embed
Password	(For file deletion.)

File: 1713823688317.jpg (94.53 KB, 1280x720, 487b246e0f55101aae9219a489….jpg)

Labour Aristocracy Anonymous 2024-04-22 (Mon) 22:08:08 No.1832651

At what point do monopoly super-profits paid to a substratum of workers switch to being something worthy of celebration to something of genuine concern. Should this be something that Marxists even care about?

Construction workers in one of Australia's largest states have reached an agreement that will have them paid wages equal to the top 1% of workers as a minimum, on major government projects. This is partly politics, partly because major infrastructure projects are one of the only things keeping this country artificially in growth.

Notably this doesn't apply to significant sections of the construction labour force, only for those workers on major government infrastructure projects, which are largely closed shops. Workers building domestic houses will still be paid shocking wages to work in terrible conditions.

Effectively this provides surplus wealth to a labour aristocracy at the direct expense of other government workers including healthcare workers in particular, who have average to terrible conditions and insane workloads.

Win for workers or another example of a politically connected minority extracting surplus wealth?

Glownonymous 2024-04-23 (Tue) 11:47:01 No.1833171

Government "workers"

Anonymous 2024-04-23 (Tue) 12:24:32 No.1833206

Well it's likely not permanent, although workers on these projects are being paid a lot more than they usually would, such a situation usually comes about to explain why the project in turn costs the taxpayer so much money. Government contracted construction is such a common target for such scams to transfer money from the state to the bourgeoisie.

So I'd not go to the point of saying these workers are labour aristocrats, their income is still just a fair weather as anyone else's and they'll be back to regular tradie wages as soon as there's too much heat on government spending on infrastructure projects.

Anonymous 2024-04-23 (Tue) 23:09:28 No.1833857

>>1832651
labor aristocracy doesnt have to result from imperialism it can also come about as a result of a skills shortage as highly skilled workers ex: engineers can demand a higher wage and better treatment, what stalin called the technical intelligensia, ironically the exact class that came to dominate the soviet government and eventually betrayed the USSR for its own class interests as they were jealous of their western counterparts relative living standard and prestige.

Anonymous 2024-04-24 (Wed) 05:09:16 No.1834178

There are 2 types of labor aristocracy:
doles paid out by imperialist governments to the unemployed (farmers in the West are such workers on the doles, and not economically useful people);
and then there is the fact of "drift" of certain professions between borders, and concetration of bankers, doctors and programmers etc in the imperial core

First type MUST BE destroyed because they are straight up parasites. Second type will get abolished simply by developing production forces elsewhere

Anonymous 2024-04-24 (Wed) 05:50:41 No.1834206

File: 1713937840271-0.png (4.07 MB, 4000x3509, world wealth map.png)

File: 1713937840271-1.png (87.37 KB, 673x523, american war support.png)

>>1832651
The "labor aristocracy" isn't something you have to worry about unless the proletariat supports imperialism. In fact, that's basically the entire thrust behind this theory. Certain sections of the proletariat get paid more because they take on some degree of the loot taken from exploited nations, thus tying their material interests to the maintenance of imperialism.

I don't know about Australia, but in the United States it was essentially a way to explain why the AFL-CIO was so chauvinistic in the 60s and 70s and today, after the AFL-CIO has essentially crumbled to dust, is used by Gonzaloids and other assorted Maoids to justify counter-cultural contrarianism to claim that anyone they don't like who possesses any comfort or luxury whatsoever is one of these, despite the fact that imperialist wars are controversial at best among the American public and the American proletariat no longer sees any real material gain from imperialist adventures.

Anonymous 2024-04-24 (Wed) 05:53:31 No.1834207

>>1832651
The labor aristocracy is falling apart in the west and has been since 2008, but especially 2020. Basically all the traditional middle class jobs that arose around the turn of the 20th century and became the "dream" around the mid 20th century is basically over. The PMCs are being gutted basically leaving labor to purely service jobs which themselves are falling apart. Imagine what happens when they automate food delivery and taxis, you basically can say goodbye to that as well. Because AI is taking the labor intensive jobs and also the managerial jobs, all I can say is the future is grim for the human race.

Unique IPs: 7