Lecture 7: Labor Markets and Technology

Why workers are killing themselves

• No community: long hours with minimal days off, lack of family/friends connection, no sense of work community 

• No hope: the job is not temporary, there is no building of skills, no opportunity for advancement, and one cannot afford to own/rent one’s own place 

• Alienation: estrangement from human’s essential nature– to use our creative potential; Karl Marx

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Self-actualization, esteem needs, belongingness and love needs, safety needs, physiological needs 

Economic Zones

A designated area of a country that is declared to be symbolically ‘outside’ of the country; regular laws, customs, duties, taxes, regulations, and tariffs do not apply to this specific zone 

Inequality within the labor market

• Violations of human rights and international labor standards around the world → suffering of manufacturing and other workers

• The growing power and wealth of multinational corporations

Bretton woods conference

Allowed for international trade to be easier and economically interconnected many countries to avoid war; formed the UN and international monetary fund

Economic globalization

Trade in goods, trade in service, diversity of trade partnerships, foreign direct investment, international debt, international reserves, international income payments 

Social globalization

International calls, international money transfers, international tourism, international students, immigration, international patents, McDonald's stores, etc 

Overall globalization

Economic, social, and political globalization indexes combined

Uruguay rounds

Multinational corporations have become commonplace in the world → countries have an interest in ensuring their companies are protected when doing overseas businesses 

We rely on the economy for

Jobs, pensions, maintaining our home value 

Free market economics

Unregulated system of economic exchange; taxes, quality controls, quotas, tariffs and other forms of centralized economic interventions by government either do not exist or are minimal 

Supply and demand

The less something is in demand and has more in supply, the cheaper it will be

Progressive tax rates

Rates where the more one makes income, the more tax they pay

Proportional tax rates

A system where everyone pays the same tax rate regardless of income 

Free trade agreement

A pact between two or more countries that makes it easier to trade goods across national boundaries (NAFTA, 

Nontariff barriers

A way to restrict trade using trade barriers in a form other than a tariff; i.e. quotas, embargoes, sanctions, and levies 

Quota

A government-imposed trade restriction that limits the number or monetary value of goods that a country can import or export during a particular period 

Embargo

An official ban on trade or other commercial activity with a particular country due to a result of unfavorable political or economic circumstances between nations 

Sanctions

Laws passed to partially restrict or abolish trade with certain countries; more strategic and less all-encompassing than embargos 

Levies

The legal means by which a taxing authority or a bank can seize property for the payment of a debt 

Bourgeoisie

Those that owned the means of production (i.e. businesses and factories)

Proletariat

Those who must sell their labor to sustain themselves 

Marx’s labor theory of value

The price of any economic good should be objectively determined by the average number of hours required to produce it, the cost of that labor, and the cost of raw materials 

Labor Union

An organization formed by workers in a particular trade, industry or company for the propose of improving pay, benefits, and working conditions 

Job exportation/offshoring

The relocation of jobs to other countries where products can be produced for cheaper

Sweatshops

Work environments characterized by less than minimum wage pay, excessively long work hours, unsafe or inhumane working conditions, abusive treatment of workers by employers, and/or lack of worker organizations aimed to negotiate better working conditions 

changes to global inequality

• Well-documented and publicized violations of human rights and international labor standards around the world → the immense suffering of manufacturing and other workers 

• The growing power and wealth of multinational corporations making them some of the most powerful organizations in the world today 

Power

The ability to achieve one’s goals when others are trying to prevent them form being realized

Gross Domestic Product

The value of economic activity within a country; the sum of market values of all final goods and services produced in a period 

Colonization

The act of appropriating a place or domain for one’s own use

Tariff

a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports

Surplus Value

The excess of value produced by the labor of workers over the wages they are paid