[PEN-L:27389] Re: unemployment and capitalism (II)

["Justin Schwartz" <jkschw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> My previous note on this subject was about the existence of substitutes for
> unemployment under capitalism. But there's also the issue of the existence
> of unemployment under non-capitalist modes of production.
>
> Unemployment typically doesn't exist under slavery, since the slave-owner
> tries to get as much labor as possible out of his or her chattel. It also
> doesn't exist under serfdom, since not only does the lord try to get as 
> much
> as possible out of the serf, but the serf had enough autonomy (direct 
> access
> to the means of production & subsistence) that he or she could use any free
> time to produce use-values for the family.


What this ignores (as Marx did not) was the existence of large surplus 
populations under slavery and serfdom--hence the Roman proletariat, bread 
and circuses, etc. jks

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