Modernización capitalista y trabajo abstracto: ¿sociedad post capitalista o subsunción real del trabajo general?
Fecha
1996-12-31
Autores
Mora Jimenez, HENRY Manuel
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Editor
Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica
Resumen
¿Se dirige el capitalismo mundial hacia una nueva fase de crecimiento de largo aliento? ¿Nos encontramos a las puertas de una nueva onda larga de Kondratieff? ¿Se encamina la transformación global en curso hacia una sociedad postcapatalista, en el sentido que le asigna Peter Drucker? La respuesta a estas preguntas requiere develar el hilo conductor profundo de las transformaciones que el capitalismo mundial impulsa desde los años setenta, así como el análisis de las condiciones y posibilidades objetivas de materialización de estas tendencias, y ha generado una significativa y apasionante literatura en la última década.
En este artículo se adelanta la hipótesis de que un salto cualitativo en la rentabilidad del capital a nivel mundial -condición indispensable para una nueva fase de crecimiento prolongado- no depende fundamentalmente de un mayor grado de explotación del trabajo inmediato, pues la tendencia en este campo es hacia la aceleración de la automatización, lo que a la larga atenta, más bien, contra la capacidad de valorización del capital. Tampoco es probable que dicho salto en la rentabilidad se fundamente en una prolongación de la actitud depredatoria hacia la naturaleza, pues ello pondría a la Humanidad ante la inminencia de un suicidio colectivo.
Pero dado que el capitalismo busca necesariamente una salida a su actual período de lento crecimiento en las principales economías industrializadas, intentará seriamente -en realidad ya lo está haciendo- llevar a cabo la subsunción real del trabajo general, esto es, someter a la ciencia y a sus aplicaciones productivas a un proceso de “industrialización” similar al que inició con el trabajo inmediato a partir de la revolución industrial de finales del siglo XVIII.
Is world capitalism heading towards a new phase of long-term growth? Are we at the gates of a new Kondratieff long wave? Is the ongoing global transformation moving towards a post-capitalist society, in the sense assigned to it by Peter Drucker? The answer to these questions requires revealing the deep thread of the transformations that world capitalism has been promoting since the 1970s, as well as the analysis of the objective conditions and possibilities of materializing these trends, and has generated a significant and exciting literature in the last decade. This article advances the hypothesis that a qualitative leap in the profitability of capital worldwide - an indispensable condition for a new phase of prolonged growth - does not depend fundamentally on a greater degree of exploitation of immediate labor, since the trend in this field it is towards the acceleration of automation, which in the long run attempts, rather, against the capital appreciation capacity. Nor is it likely that this jump in profitability is based on a prolongation of the predatory attitude towards nature, since this would put Humanity before the imminence of collective suicide. But since capitalism necessarily seeks a way out of its current period of slow growth in the major industrialized economies, it will seriously attempt - in fact it is already doing so - to carry out the real subsumption of general work, that is, to subject science and its productive applications to a process of "industrialization" similar to that which began with immediate work after the industrial revolution of the late eighteenth century.
Is world capitalism heading towards a new phase of long-term growth? Are we at the gates of a new Kondratieff long wave? Is the ongoing global transformation moving towards a post-capitalist society, in the sense assigned to it by Peter Drucker? The answer to these questions requires revealing the deep thread of the transformations that world capitalism has been promoting since the 1970s, as well as the analysis of the objective conditions and possibilities of materializing these trends, and has generated a significant and exciting literature in the last decade. This article advances the hypothesis that a qualitative leap in the profitability of capital worldwide - an indispensable condition for a new phase of prolonged growth - does not depend fundamentally on a greater degree of exploitation of immediate labor, since the trend in this field it is towards the acceleration of automation, which in the long run attempts, rather, against the capital appreciation capacity. Nor is it likely that this jump in profitability is based on a prolongation of the predatory attitude towards nature, since this would put Humanity before the imminence of collective suicide. But since capitalism necessarily seeks a way out of its current period of slow growth in the major industrialized economies, it will seriously attempt - in fact it is already doing so - to carry out the real subsumption of general work, that is, to subject science and its productive applications to a process of "industrialization" similar to that which began with immediate work after the industrial revolution of the late eighteenth century.
Descripción
Palabras clave
MODERNIZACIÓN, MODERNIZATION, CAPITALISMO, CAPITALISM, AUTOMATIZACIÓN, AUTOMATION, ECONOMÍA DE LA EMPRESA, BUSINESS ECONOMICS, GLOBALIZACIÓN, GLOBALIZATION