(picture courtesy of new.geekradio.com)
The definition of a developed nation is flawed particularly
as it states that post industrialism is a pertinent feature. What does it mean
to be post industrial in today’s world? Can a nation truly be post industrial? According to the definition a post industrial
society relies more on delivering services as opposed to relying exclusively on
its manufacturing base to acquire wealth having passed through the stage of
industrialization. The definition implies that overtime the service sector
becomes the dominant accumulator within the economy. If that is the case then we have to look at
how value is created through services and manufacturing. Manufacturing depends
on producing commodities for sale in the market . Once the goods are sold the
profits will return to the owner with a portion redistributed throughout the
company in the form of new investments so as to continue production and another
portion for his own personal revenue to do with it as he or she so pleases. The
elements that constitute manufacturing costs are the constant and variable
elements. The constant element includes raw materials, semi finished products
and machinery/technology. The variable element includes wages paid to the workers
who are thoroughly exploited by the owner. The worker represents variable
capital because it is his labour that generates surplus value for the
capitalist. The portion that represents the wages is considered that which is
necessary for the worker to survive whereas the surplus for the working day
represents the unpaid labour time which the capitalist appropriates. This is
all dependent on the working day which can range from 8-14 hours a day. The
more wages paid indicates that the worker is appropriating more of the value he
generates to produce the commodity with the rest being surplus value. The wages
begin to decrease as a result of increased productivity where it requires less
work to produce a particular product. ( I am not going to refer to external
elements such as the trade unions etc in determining the amount of wages paid) This is determined by the social standard of
labour which agrees on the amount of time it takes to produce a particular
commodity. The less necessary labour it takes to produce a particular commodity
the more surplus value for the capitalist. The profit is calculated on the basis of the
surplus value generated as separate from the capital invested in the constant
feature of the industrial process. Surplus value and by extension surplus
profit thereby have a distinct measure in such a case with regards to the
production of the commodity. The profit generated throughout the manufacturing
or industrial factory process spreads throughout various sectors of the economy
such as the banks, the stock exchange which helps to feed other companies' increased investment, government bonds and government taxes, luxury products and services. I highlight
services to show that it merely appropriates revenue. Revenue is generated through
productive labour which is normally
shared amongst the great classes of a modern economy: wage earners under
capital, the profits of the capitalist and the rents of the landlords and
interest for the money lender who makes
loans to either of these classes that have some stake with the surplus product.
Surplus value represents the ground for
all these classes for if the workers claimed the entire product of a days
labour then there would be no capitalist to collect profits or landlord to
demand rent or any interest to pay out to the money lender.
Services
appropriate revenue and within the context of the global economy a particular nation can appropriate the surplus
product of the workers of other countries. If America was truly post industrial
then it would not need its productive sectors and could rely solely on research
and development through the various educational institutions or by providing
financial, health, maintenance and the like. They would not need their
factories according to this definition. The provision of services in a post
industrial society implies some high level of expertise (not referring to
domestic services which are the lowest kind of service. I am referring to
generating significant growth in the economy). This high level of expertise
will attract money into the country and so the economy will grow and the funds
earned would either be repatriated to the secondary countries that are engaged
primarily in manufacturing or be retained to fuel more services with the hope that the truly productive countries will continue to feed it with the surplus profits generated by industry. The dilemma between the US and China for instance
seems to suggest that the US will employ a qualitative approach to development i.e.
its think tanks will develop the latest commodity with a necessary use value
for exchange on the market. This commodity will represent a high level of
scientific research however for it to be truly commercialized it has to go to
China for production. If this is what is meant by post industrial then it is
accurate. If, as a post industrial society, the US requires only highly skilled
labour and does not need industry to produce within its boundaries then its
economy will contract and it will stagnate. The wealth of a nation is the
amount of commodities produced within its borders.
Attracting money into a country means nothing unless it is
invested in productive industry in order to produce commodities for the market;
unless money in this context is a commodity i.e. capital for investment. If
this money cannot be translated into the money capital for investment then
interest rates are meaningless within the context of the national economy. The only
way for capital to valorize (increase value) itself is to produce commodities not merely to
collect money for services rendered. The only way this would be acceptable is
if the developed nation has a developed post industrial mechanism designed primarily
to render services. The impression that the definition of post industrial gives
is that a developed nation no longer engages in industry. This would imply that
the economy will not grow significantly from this point onwards. The concept of
a developed nation suggests that the nation itself cannot valorize capital significantly
within its national borders. It is within the productive sector where surplus
value is generated. The inability to valorize capital significantly beyond the
extent which the country became developed is a sign that the nation will endure
a relative decline i.e. the absolute wealth of the nation will be magnificent
for the moment but that is about it. The nation that constantly valorizes
capital and grows phenomenally (China) will soon represent the new standard of
wealth because of the amount of industrial production within its borders. London
was once the great market for capital on the basis of its industrial sector
that conquered the world in the 19th century. Britain became caught
up in the value of its currency, sterling, but its value was to be represented
by its industrial capacity and this floundered significantly after WW2. Its
decline was represented by the inadequate means of valorizing capital through
industry. Sterling was a commodity as capital but the extent which sterling was
stored as a reserve was based on the extent that Britain’s trade was extensive.
The logical means within capitalist production to valorize capital and extend
your reach into foreign markets is on the basis of the export of commodities. The US emerged from the ashes of the U.K
because of its industrial might and the wealth of commodities produced. The U.K
stagnated in this area. Quality is one thing but innovation is pointless in
capitalism unless the commodity can be mass produced. It is similar to how the Netherlands
eventually became a predominantly commercial nation handing out loans from its
developed financial sector. Britain did the same thing and now the US with its
public debt and Wall Street operatives are exercising the same function and
this will imply that relative decline is inevitable.
There is no such thing as a developed nation in the absolute
sense because developed implies stagnation. All countries are developing within
the context of valorizing capital. If a country accepted its status of
developed it would not have to valorize capital significantly. It still has to
continue developing within the context of capital for this system implies
constant increase in the amount of commodities whether nationally or
internationally. This developing is also significant for absorbing later
generations of that particular nation. Only industry can achieve that not
services. A country is only developed when it is highly industrialized i.e. its
infrastructure is entrenched and the development of its factory system is
ordered in a particular way to continue developing and valorizing capital.
Highly industrialized therefore means that the infrastructure facilitates smoothly
the production and circulation of the many commodities within its national
borders. The production and circulation of commodities is done strictly within
the context of the capitalist mode of production. According to the notion of
developed Rome was developed within the context of landed property, slave
labour and its military complex. The US is only developed within the context of
capitalism. The mistake is assuming that this mode of production, capitalism, is
absolute. Developing countries are considered such because they aspire to the capitalist
mode of production while shedding the vestiges of previous modes of production:
slave, colonial and feudal economies. The Soviet Union was also developed
within the context of a command economy. The Soviet economy did not embrace
communism as it should have been or as it will be, if even under another name. The
current world crises, which will become even more severe in the future with
more capital at stake, suggest that being developed is not sufficient according
to various definitions and is meaningless in this mode of production. There have to be commodities to produce on an
industrial level so to imply that developed countries are post industrial is a mere
pastiche moment for bourgeois economists. Within the context of the capitalist
mode of production industry is essential. No country is post industrial for it
does not exist within this mode of production. The capitalist mode of
production involves the exploitation of wage labour by the few that own capital
and the more countries that can embrace this concept will become developed
because they would have embraced the necessary systems to manage the flow of
capital in producing commodities in order to increase wealth.
