Disposable workers: today's reserve army of labor

Monthly Review, April, 2004 by Fred Magdoff, Harry Magdoff

Persons in the lower reaches of the reserve army naturally and through no fault of their own require assistance to maintain themselves--unemployment benefits, government supported welfare, privately donated food, and so on. Even those employed part-time or in low-wage full-time jobs need help to pay for rent, utilities, food, and childcare. The federal minimum wage, currently earned by nearly 7 million workers and influencing the pay of millions more low-wage earners, hasn't kept pace with inflation--since the late 1980s it has been about $1.50 an hour less, in constant dollars, than it was in the late 1970s (see chart 3). Once able to cover many of the basic needs of workers, the minimum wage is no longer sufficient. Someone earning the minimum wage of $5.15 per hour (current dollars), for 52 weeks at 40 hours per week, has an annual income of $10,712. This is only three-quarters of the $14,300 needed for a family of three to reach the officially defined poverty threshold.

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Part of the explanation for the meager support for those consigned by the capitalist system to the reserve army of labor is an ideologically-driven notion that has taken deep root among the U.S. population. The problems of the poor, according to this view, are mainly due to their own failings--they are lazy or just haven't had the foresight to get a good education, or had children when they were too young. This perverse logic, that an essential component of the economic system--produced and continually reproduced by capitalism--is somehow the fault of the least powerful, is also internalized by the poor themselves. Even if the myth were true, it would still be immoral to deny adequate shelter, food, and healthcare to the children of such "deficient" parents, or to the "failed" individuals themselves, for that matter. Racism also plays its part, with the misperception among many whites that welfare is a program mainly for minorities.

Because a large fraction of capital's future needs for labor can be filled by the less educated echelons of the reserve army, an educational system in which all succeed is not necessary. The Bush administration's intrusion into public school education (the so-called No Child Left Behind act), is no less than a blow against public education in the guise of assisting schools.

The Future of the Reserve Army

The reserve labor armies of the United States and Europe have been in a privileged position relative to their counterparts in the third world, where the greater part of the global reserve army of labor is now located. This has been the result of historic and frequently bitter labor battles fought in the core countries many decades ago. Their outcomes were better working conditions, steadily increasing wages (and a minimum wage, as inadequate as it might be), protections against arbitrary firing, more paid time off, better welfare programs, subsidized school lunches for children of low-income families, old-age pensions, and healthcare benefits. Some of these gains were made during periods of rapid economic growth, which provided surpluses that eased the pain of capitalists forced to pay higher wages. Additionally, during the Cold War, the atmosphere, while not pro-labor, was more amenable to meeting labor's needs. Capital wanted labor's support in the struggle against the Soviet Union as well as in the various hot wars, including those in Korea and Vietnam.