We also work an unbelievable eight weeks longer each year than the average Western European. But the longer hours, the increase in absolute surplus extracted from the workers, has also gone a long way to keep the economy going. The crisis in society and the family as evidenced by the ever more common shootings among school children is but a symptom of a much deeper problem. There is an increasing, unconscious feeling among the workers and youth that there is no hope for future. The recent events in Seattle during the anti-WTO protests confirm our view that the mood is definitely changing in America.
People are willing to slave away for others only as long as they think things are getting better.
So while all the defenders of capitalism hail the booming economy, the average working class family quite justifiably wonders what all the fuss is about. Even the somewhat elite Information Technology sector has become proletarianized. Their hope is to retire at age 30 as millionaires, but when the new technology boom goes the way of the railroad boom, they will be left with little to show but their prematurely gray hair and dark circles under their eyes. With the unavoidable economic crash, their dreams will be shattered. They will inevitably begin to look for alternatives.