Fair Deals and Market Forces
08.19.07 - 01:02pm
Our economic system routinely rewards those who contribute relatively little to the public good while those who do exactly that are expected to make do with a pittance and a warm glow
Nurses in England will decide by the middle of September whether to take industrial action over the government’s final below inflation pay offer, according to reports in the media today, in a case which provides an instructive insight into the fundamental flaws in the functioning of our economy and our society.
The government is offering a staged pay increase amounting to 1.9% for the year. Roughly 95% of England’s nurses had already voted to go ahead with industrial action prior to this slightly improved offer from the Department of Health.
While nurses traditionally receive justifiably sympathetic coverage from the mainstream media, that media will not address the fundamental underlying issues which this case momentarily brings to light.
The first is the simple fact that nurses, and other public sector workers, are being used as a tool by this (supposedly) Labour government in order to keep a lid on the monster which haunts the dreams of the money men, inflation. Salary increases at the top end, and in various parts of the private sector, plus tax evading non-domiciles and others are causing inflationary pressures in the economy. And to try to offset this it is the poorer yet essential public sector workers who pay the price.
Nurses are expected to take a pay cut (in real terms) in order for the government to keep control of inflation, while lawyers, city traders and others can continue to pocket pay rises greater than most people’s annual salaries.
The current starting salary for a newly-qualified nurse is £20,026. Many lower-paid nursing staff earn between £14,453 and £19,730. In a shocking example of how workers of such true value to society are viewed by the government, these low paid workers are being offered a £38 one-off payment as part of the new package.
A £38 one-off payment.
Less than the price of a bottle of the Champagne which no doubt adorn the tables of our government ministers as they meet their big business chums to decide what’s best for “the economy”.
The second point is that our economic structures routinely reward those who contribute relatively little to society and the public good while those who do exactly that are expected to make do with a pittance and a warm glow. Rewards gravitate towards those who contribute not to society but a lot in services to capitalism and the wealthy elites who coordinate it.
The case of the nurses and public sector workers is of particular interest. For those who prattle about the free market seem blind to the fact that this case is the exact opposite of the functioning of a free market. Nurses’ pay awards are being actively suppressed by state interference because the government cynically yet openly proclaims inflation as a greater priority than fair pay for vital public servants.
This internal incoherence aside, abandoning such workers to the buffeting of the “free market” would change little. As George Carlin puts it: “The game is rigged.” Private vices, public benefits might be a tenet of free market capitalism but rampant inequality, reaching such levels that it has even broken into the mainstream press, plus the slow erosion of the social gains made after World War II tell a different story.
I am not proposing solutions. There are some others, such as Michael Albert, who are. I am saying that we as a society must face the fact that while the difficulties we are confronted with can be alleviated by tinkering at the edges, they will never be resolved until we tackle the deep flaws in the system itself.
There is no reason to believe this is the end of history, that the state capitalist model is the best of all possible worlds. We need to break free from the phony free market religion which continually preaches that it is.
Amen.
“plus the slow erosion of the social gains made after World War II tell a different story.” I think that’s a very important point, people demanded a country worth all the horror and capital was on the back foot for a while here, but slowly using anti-communist paranoia they reasserted themselves then in the 70’s they broke cover. ‘The Mayfair set’ etc. since then they have wrecked the joint. It isn’t progress it is regression to robber barons except they are global in their reach. So that phrase is a good reminder perhaps to appeal to people’s nostalgia and patriotism even, you could even catch Mail readers with that angle. Because they have been conned that conservatism is free market baloney (I don’t like conservatism but it is not the radical capitalism seen now) a broad coalition is needed to turn this. I think a lot of people have not seen the huge opulence now acccruing at the top and they are encouraged not to relate that to their lives, their crumbling infrastructure, their authoritarian police keeping a lid on the growing anger of a younger generation who can’t even buy a roof over their heads and if they go to university they emerge soaked in debt.