An Orthodox Marxist Critique of the Third Wave Study Group:
Do Computers Change the Face of Capitalism or Only Give It a Facelift? (page 2 of 3)
By Class Struggle

So it's hardly the case that embodied knowledge is the key element of wealth at least up to now. At most it's what the Third Wavers would like to see. But saying so today boils down to creating an ideology that promotes "intellectual capital," thus giving it a special political role.

Computers and Job Loss

The Third Wave Study Group sees computers as having a major impact on jobs: "In third wave production only a few workers are needed to produce goods of much greater quality and sophistication. This is due to the embedding of microcomputer technology right into the tools of production. By organizing work so most of the manual tasks can be done by technology, the number of workers needed to carry out the task gets reduced dramatically .... The third wave guts entire workforces and industries to the point of collapse."

The introduction of computers, like the introduction of any major technology in capitalism, has a contradictory effect on jobs. The balance sheet of whether it creates or destroys more jobs can't be determined by grand pronouncements about sweeping trends, but only by a concrete examination of the job impact.

Of course computers immediately caused job losses in the manufacture of typewriters and mechanical calculators, which they directly replaced. They have also reduced jobs in certain particular industries.

In the telephone industry, for example, computers have replaced the vast majority of operators. In the chemical industry, companies have removed workers from the refinery apparatus, replacing them with automatic controls, and concentrating the remaining workers in the control rooms. At the level of the economy as a whole, statistical studies show that when more computers are introduced in an industry, the share of white collar workers increases and the share of blue collar workers decreases. But the effect isn't automatic or immediate. And computers are not the only cause of decreases. For example, in the very same period when computers were being introduced, the working class has fought very few fights to resist the increased physical intensity of labor. Furthermore, the introduction of co require more workers rather than fewer for several years, as the change disrupts production. Not to mention the fact that as many workers know often the computers don't run right and it's especially difficult to co-ordinate different types of computers with one another. Workers have to learn new skills, which takes time, and often their productivity drops during the process.

On the other hand, with the massive introduction of computers since 1973, we've seen the growth of entire new industries. Today hundreds of thousands of workers are employed in new plants both in this country and in Latin America and Asia making semi-conductors and computers and all the parts and components that go into them. Further there are software programmers, those involved in the sales of computers, computer maintenance workers, and numerous specialized computer workers in industry.

Computers and microchip technology may dramatically raise the productivity of certain machines, but that doesn't automatically mean that there is a decline in jobs. If the output of the industry in question is growing rapidly, rapid rises in productivity may go along with job growth. But what is striking is that the overall rate of growth of productivity of the U.S. economy is lower since 1973, the period of both capitalist stagnation and the massive introduction of computers. Though computers have the potential to rapidly raise productivity, this hasn't happened so far at the level of the entire economy.

The technology for the automation of entire industries has been available for a number of years, yet the automation isn't applied. Because the Third Wavers forget that it isn't simply a question of what is technologically possible. The capitalists often have massive investment in the old technology which would be made worthless if they put in large new investments. The decision to invest i like every other investment decision in this society, is determined by its possible effects on profitability. When the rate of profit is low, capitalists often avoid making possible investments. Obviously this has occurred in many sectors, where they haven't put in all the technically feasible automated equipment, or even all the technically feasible equipment of earlier technology.

So up to now, entire workforces and industries haven't been gutted by the introduction of computers. The world described by the Third Wave Study Group may be the world they wish, in which intellectual capital and knowledge workers would reign, but it isn't the real world.

The Knowledge Workers

The Third Wave Study Group says the new technologies have not only affected the economic base of capitalism, they have changed the relations of production. They say three main groups of workers are impacted: the new "knowledge" workers, the declining blue collar workers and the increased ranks of the unemployed. They describe the "knowledge workers" as "a dynamic and growing force of skilled analysts, designers and technicians, filling the jobs created by the new technology." Turning to their conditions at work, they say, "The economic organization of knowledge workers emphasizes less hierarchy, less bureaucracy, more information about and control of the job process, and greater participation or empowerment at the site of work." So they have created a category of workers that are involved with the new technology so-called "knowledge workers." The problem with this category is that it doesn't group people by their social relations to the mean but instead by the technology they work with.

Some people using the new technology, like salaried programmers and electronics technicians, are skilled white collar workers involved with production much like draftsmen or tool and die workers. They are exploited by the capitalists who pay less for their labor power than their labor contributes to the product they help produce. By level of pay, lack of autonomy on the job, domination by managers, and in various cases contact with blue collar production or transport workers, they are just a part of the working class, whether they see it or not. Many knowledge workers find themselves at the bottom of a corporate hierarchy where they have to do very detailed work, not much different from that of a skilled trades production worker. IBM for instance, which is by far the biggest company involved with the computer industry, is notorious for its heavy management structure, which certainly leaves little room for "greater participation or empowerment at the site of work."

Other "knowledge workers" are self-employed as programmers or computer consultants. They are a part of the petty bourgeoisie, who neither employ others nor are employed themselves. Still other "knowledge workers," particularly computer and electronics engineers, work closely with management and have considerable control over their job process. Others supervise workers and become integrated into the managerial hierarchy of control over the work process. They are given a certain status by this society. Their salaries well exceed not only those of blue collar workers but also other "knowledge workers," and they enjoy more pleasant working conditions. They have opportunities to enrich themselves through investments in stocks, bonds, and real estate, all of which gives them a stake in present society and turns their interests against the working class. Obviously the Third Wavers include in one single category to which they attribute common interests and the same political role people who ... belong to antagonistic social classes. More >>