For Labour Day, here's my comment on James Miraflor's essay "Why Higher Wages Make Economic Sense":
Hi James, Good essay. I find your position very "normative" that is largely devoid of the analysis and strategy for creating the political-economic conditions for a high wage regime. Economically, this requires a mode of production that is able to induce productivity explosions and realize full employment. Politically, then, it shall establish a countervailing power of labour unions.
For rich countries like Scandinavia and Western Europe, I think increasing wages is only a question of political will on the part of the government and involves political negotiations between capitalists and organised labour. But this is not the case in a poor Philippines as recently manifested in PNoy turning down the demands of "labour" for legislated salary increase, living wage, and job security in favour of "capital" and its ideals for "competitiveness" through the creation/maintenance of a "market-friendly" socio-economic regime.So, for me, first-order agenda are an economic mode of production that is able to create wealth for the nation and a political movement to struggle for high wages and its attendant positive social consequences.
We are all labourers! Mabuhay!
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P.S.1. PNoy sang a somewhat different tune — yet consistently neoliberal — in this year's labour day (see Rappler's top story "Aquino rejects labor groups' demands") compared with his speech two years ago before a gathering of employers....
Cf., a blog note I posted two years ago: "Workers spend what they get; capitalists get what they spend."
P.S.2. As I asserted a couple of years ago on Labour Day: "Labour is source of value and wealth. We are all workers!"
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