When Exploitation Can Be a Good Thing

When Karl Marx pointed out the exploitative nature of capitalism with his famous point about workers having nothing to lose but their chains, he had many valid points. Today though, what Joan Robinson, a British economist, said (in 1962) is more accurate:
“The misery of being exploited by capitalists is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited at all.”

The wheel had come full circle!

Sadly, that is not the case in India. At least not in terms of our labour laws. They still reflect Marx rather than Robinson.

Take the manufacturing sector for an example. In most countries, that sector creates the most jobs. Not so in India. The reason is our labour laws: they make layoffs close to impossible. That in turn discourages hiring of temporary workers. Industries like steel, textiles and automobile are cyclical, i.e., they grow, then contract and the cycle repeats itself. Such industries turn to technology to automate the work instead of hiring people during the boom times who they can’t layoff during the bad times. And thus an employment creation opportunity is lost.

That’s even more sad because as per the ILO (International Labour Organisation), by 2020, three out of every ten extra workers in the world will be Indian.

We need to create more jobs as those new people come to the workforce. If only the socialists and do-gooders in India wake up and change our labour laws. Otherwise, as China ages with no new, younger people to take their place, the manufacturing jobs from China will end up going to Vietnam and Bangladesh instead of coming here.

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