Vol. 75/No. 46      December 19, 2011

Why no jobs program?
It seems from history that the capitalist class and its government strongly resist any kind of real jobs program. I recognize this fact, but I don’t understand it.

On the surface, it seems that the capitalist class should want a jobs and infrastructure program. Their corporations would hire workers to create housing, transportation, hospitals, schools, infrastructure, and would make big profits from government payments—just like they do with “defense” spending.

Why don’t the capitalists welcome and promote this?

David Segal
New York, N.Y.

Editor’s note: The capitalist class is particularly short-sighted. They are driven to act only in their most immediate interests, i.e. maximum profit now. It is the experience of the working-class movement that all reforms are the by-products of mass class struggles. In the U.S. for example, Roosevelt’s public works and other such concessions were enacted by U.S. rulers shaken by the massive labor and social movements of the 1930s. These concessions in turn helped stabilize the capitalists’ economy and political rule.  
 
 
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