Production for use--lessons from hard times

[eridani]

http://www.truthout.org/072209R?n

A reverberating theme that emerges in hard times is the idea of "production for use," rather than production only if production is profitable in the market. This requires actions - whether by government or by ordinary community members - that attempt to meet needs directly, rather than through the failing process of production for the market.

Remarkably, President Obama laid out this precise this idea - rarely heard in public discourse in The United States since the 1930's - in advocating his economic stimulus legislation.

His plan, he said, recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment - the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work, even as, all around the country, there is so much work to be done. That's why we'll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

Such an approach has a long history.

In every major U.S. recession since 1808, unemployed people and allies have organized to demanded job creation through public works at local, state national and even international levels. (Franklin Folsom offers a history of these efforts in his book, "Impatient Armies of the Poor.") And in an earlier post we described how the international labor movement proposed international public works as a way to overcome the mass unemployment of the Great Depression - and to combat the fascist movements it was engendering. This expressed an intuitive - and at times explicit - sense that if there are things that need to be done and people who need work, why shouldn't those people be put to work doing what needs to be done?

New Deal public works programs like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed millions and substantially reduced unemployment until Roosevelt cut them back in the face of conservative hostility. The WPA was notable for its emphasis on putting people to work doing things that utilize their existing skills.