5 Assignment 03

Toniann German

Assignment #3

Soc

In Harry Bravemans “The making of the working class” he discusses how the working class is divided because the workers are divided in their work. He expresses that just because a person works it does not make them apart of the working class. Braveman gives examples of the farmer and the contractor to explain that these people would not be seen as working class rather than the people who are hired to work under them. Although business owners, farmers or contractors may do similar work as their employees it is there level of authority that is separating them from the working class, because these people work for themselves they are not considered working class.

Braveman separates the working class by productive vs nonproductive workers, Braveman states that productive vs nonproductive does not mean manual labor vs non manual labor. rather productive workers produce something useful. He gives the example of clerks who do things that contribute to the production of a product although they may not necessary be in direct contact with the product.  Unproductive workers on the other hand are described in Bravemans reading as the banks, insurance, investments, and real estate industries just to name a few. Unproductive labor is that which is unnecessary in the production of goods. Here I believe he is describing productive vs nonproductive as todays white collar worker’s vs blue collar workers. Another way to view productive vs unproductive is that which benefits society or government and that which does not bring profit or benefit society as a whole.

When looking at these terms I believe That Braveman is stating that although there are productive workers and unproductive workers both are seen as belonging to the working class because they are working under someone. I believe that people are moving into the direction of unproductive work because the productive work is starting to be taken over by the rise of technology.

Marielis Rosado
September 18, 2016
SOC 32014
Productive & Unproductive Labor
In “The Making of the Working class”, by Harry Braveman, he talks about unproductive and productive labor. As it was hard to understand what the difference is between both, he goes in details about it. Productive and unproductive labor is not based on the business, career, or performance but it is based on the labor that it produces and when their productivity of labor remains stable or unstable throughout the process. Those traits define productive and unproductive labor. Productive labor is very much needed for any society, as it is the type of labor that will bring more opportunities and positive outcomes to any society.
As mentioned in the passage, productive labor could be those jobs that most people do not consider productive due to their performance. Jobs like clerical work and transportation are part of productive labor. Part of productive labor is useful objects, useful values and useful services. These are important for the production or that type of labor to remain being needed. Productive labor is considered productive because the business only continues to rise very much. Due to it continuous rising in labor these business are able to offer more job opportunities.
I was surprised to see what some of the unproductive labor are. One of the unproductive labors is construction. After reading the passage I was able to understand why construction would be part of unproductive labor. Construction jobs is not always steady, today you might have a lot of work but then in a week there might not be any projects to need workers to finish the job. Unproductive labors are labors that keep rising and declining. Unproductive labor is unsteady jobs due to the rising and declining of the labor, due to this it causes a lot of workers to get terminated. Many workers end up unemployed due to these unproductive labors; the unemployed rates keep rising and declining.
The differences between both productive and unproductive labor is big, as productive labor is the type of job you can count on for producing and improving for both the individual and the business itself. Productive labor has more opportunities and as mentioned above it has nothing to do with the career. It was surprising to see that there are unproductive labors in every neighborhood which many of us do not consider unproductive. As we all would just like productive labor in our neighborhood I believe both, productive and unproductive labor, go hand in hand.

Braverman walks through a thorough history of the sociology of capital. Understanding the pre-industrial (before 1920) economic transition from craftsmen and farmers who cultivated their skills for at least five years. This yielded to the basis of  small proprietorship and entrepreneurship faded when imperial capitalism became the United States dominate economic system. During the industrial era, capitalism transformed into production dominance. This genre of capitalism was enforced by ex-slaves and farmers because the agricultural business was in the making of becoming an mass agricultural enterprise. No longer did we have the opportunity to invest years in learning a trade but were given on the job training in industries, such as coal mining, manufacturing and construction. These jobs Braverman describes as production labor. Production labor can be define by the goods/ commodities which are made in a certain measurement of time.  The feminist movement changed the job market by empowering women to take their domestic skills into employment opportunities. Capitalism has taken advantage of the migration of Europeans and South-Americans who fled their countries for freedom and and an increase in prosperity. With such an increase of people wanting to work it was easy to keep wages low, production high and profit higher. As new industries began to grow, for example, techonology, unemployment rates started to rise because technology was now aiding a faster production turnout (meaning less human labor and higher capital gains). Braverman considers finance, real estate, insurance, retail and wholesale unproductive work (even though during this time this text was written these industries were paid lower). Braverman’s point was that the production of these industries did not result in commodities  that were bought and sold in the economic market turning a constant profit. Productive work is broken down into managed labor and hired labor. Hired labor, the employee is the cog in the wheel that churns out capital for the one percent. The difference between these economic systems pre and post- Industrial era is that the laborer no longer has an investment in the company, they have no understanding how they influence the corporation as a whole, only how their protocol adhere’s to themselves. Braverman’s analysis of the working class is still true to this day. Not necessarily production and non-production work but how the laborer is exploited by capitalism and then dis-guarded without much retirement to be replaced by someone who’s younger and willing to work for measly benefits.

Harry Braverman speaks about, how the capitalist true purpose is to boost the productivity and lower the cost of the labor force. This is achieved by breaking down each job to its simplest form to be able to maximize its profit. As the capitalist system needs to create division of labor, it does so by detailing the workmanship to the simplest form possible, as it aims to destroy craftsmanship.

In “ The Making of the working Class” The distinction that Harry Braverman is making between productive and unproductive work is that the capitalist system has used science and technology to make it possible to increase productivity and profit. This in turn created a shift that lessened the need for skilled workers. Due to this shift, in return created the need for robotic unskilled workers. As in the sample of the textile mills, with the industrialization of it’s manufacturing it lost their skilled workers. The machines were able to mass produce and increase its outputs. Its skilled workers were no longer needed and are then forced to go into unproductive work fields. This was usually in the accounting, banking or marketing firms that were considered to be very controlled industries, the workers there were considered cheap labor and very easily replaceable by other workers.

During our conversations in class, we had a discussion that related to this weeks’ reading. One of the comments made during that conversation was in relation to creating a workforce of “doers” and “thinkers”. “Doers” representing the workers who provide manual labor and/or create thing with their hands. “Thinkers” being represented by the workers who use more of the intangible elements of labor that do not require maximum physical effort. In Braverman’s “The Making of the U.S. Working Class” we tend to dive a bit deeper into this discussion and analyze the development of the workforce in the U.S. and the authors’ perspective on how it works.

It was interesting but not surprising to understand how the workforce is technically divided into categories and then sub categories.  The understanding being that while the working class is broken down into categories of sex, region and race, the underlying goal is to separate them into one of 2 categories. the “employers” and the “employees”. In order for this to work within our society, the workforce has to be created in the fashion that the employers provide the materials and goods, while the employees provide the manual labor that produce the product. He also mentions how not introducing education to the masses of laborers solidifies the separation of these classes and keeps the rich richer, and the work to the side of the laborers.

According to Baverman, the idea of capitalism is the reasoning why these two categories exist. He argues that the goal of producing labor and creating the workforce is to gain capital. The creation of a labor workforce is to maintain employer’s production of capital. As I read into the article, I argue that employees do not reap the benefits of capital but are conditioned to understand that labor is the basis of their work ethic and survival. He uses our history here in the U.S. and slavery to help us understand this ideal as slaves were used as free labor and the land owners benefited through their production.

It just seems interesting to me how the idea of capitalism and the creation of working classes seems to always end in how society benefits from the struggles of others. We tend to see in this article that the privileged, who have access to resources, property and capital still grow off the sweat and tears of the individuals who breaks their backs to survive. Leaves me to wonder if there will ever be a shift in the construction of the working class in the near future.

In the making of The U.S Working Class, Braverman describes how the working “class” has been formed over the centuries into different categories. We see in history, during the times of slavery, fewer percentages of actual labors (mainly because the laborers were slaves). As time went on, those slaves eventually became owners of their own farms. Braverman then gives statistics on how the small percentage of actual workers began to increase verses the amount of entrepreneur or business owners. When we think of the business owners who are sometimes also as skilled as the actually people they employ, we still are used to separating them from the idea that they are workers. This thought has been created over time as a social way of looking at people as two separate things and giving them separate titles (employer and employee). This hierarchy is one of the social aspects of the way the working class was labeled.

Braverman describes the methods of training over time and the shift in how learning a trade or craft would typically take many years of apprenticeship. Now, it has become standard to make jobs simple so that an employee would be able to be trained within a couple of days, weeks or months. This has created a culture in which people in the working class are more like robots that can be changed out without creating a disruption in the entire operation.

In order for the capitalistic methods of society to continue, productive work must be controlled. One example was with the reclassification of gender roles in the work place. For example, socially classifying certain types of jobs as a woman’s job my perhaps control the pay grade, keep the level of skill at an entry level to make the person on the job as replaceable as possible. In productive work such as businesses that produce goods that may in return benefit the entire society or in return bring money to the government are forms of productive work.

Some examples that Braveman uses as unproductive work are those that do not bring the government and profit, such as any type of public assistance programs or benefits to banks and insurance companies. These industries have a large number of working class people, but these industries are likely to have workers who are less skilled therefore paid less

All of these changes in the working class system have contributed in some way to increase the power of capitalism. Braverman is explaining how the working class is somehow steering the direction of the working class into positions and labels that make the working class replaceable. These small changes have been occurring for hundreds of years are all contributions to the creation of the U.S working class and enforcing a capitalistic society.

Why do people obey? For example, Why do you speak Spanish or English? My native language is Spanish and then I learned to speak English. Living in the United States it is a standard pattern to learn to speak English, anything out of the norm would be different. It is a social behavior expected from people. This is something that is except from the people.  This is my example of what I think Harry Bravermen means by the Working U.S society. What is a working class? A working class is a group of people who work in industrial or manual labor for wages. What is labor? Labor is individuals who are persuading for their own needs. Harry Braverman explains that we grew up in a society that seems to us as a “natural condition”. We see this as human nature, it is a natural thing to do so survive in this economy. We live in a society where it is normal for people at the “top” (with wealth and power) to live great, while others like the “bottom or poor” work with little resources to try and live great.  People are exploited and degraded by the system. It shows how the economic struggle in the U.S controls our dignity about our wages; And although we dont see it like this, it is our new way of life. Braverman also explains that we are separated by work. We are separated by industries and occupations in which we work . We are separated by factories, offices, banks and warehouses (pg. 5). It separates us from living, in a way, because we will work in the labor market with nothing except our physical labor. We live in a capitalist system that is built to increase, so the more we expand the more the value increases. At the end of the day we still have to work together for the economy to keep going. It doesn’t have to be where I am not highly educated or have great job credit ails to be “lazy” because even the “lazy worker is involved in the manual labor. That is how we are separated and exploited in so many ways. In conclusion, i explained before that we have to work together as an economy because both populations of “high” and “low” working classes still increase the sales and services that we need. I think its a good way to make us understand the history a little better and the struggle.

Breverman explains ( P.15) that working class is divided by sex ,race,occupations and industries and many others reasons. It’s important to understand that society of the working class is a recent occurrence in the United States, only a century since hieing the working class became the majority. Example a shoe maker owns his shop is not working, the people he hires are “working class” but the owner of the shop isn’t because he is there to supervise the working class.

A worker can increase productivity by saving time that is usually lost in changing from job to job. He thought that you are more productive when you stay at the same job for many years. All because doing the same job many times increase peoples ability to perform simple operations. Also buying machines to help the workers in simple tasks. He felt the more jobs are separated into smaller tasks the more productivity is gather in the manufacturing process.

>Braverman said that the capitalist problem starts in the buying and selling of labor. When a worker selling of labor. When a worker sells something and the capitalist buys it, is not what makes a productive work time.(P.30)  That a capitalist society has its own way to guide labor into places that make more sense. Sense the 1920s in the United States there has been a tremendous movement of unproductive labor. He mentions that such industries like welfare offices, unemployment banking ,insurance and real estate industries are unproductive industries. All because the employment in these areas is raising and because of it employment in all others the unproductive employment it is cousin a rapid rise in unemployment.

This society is more focused on profits rather than on production of a product. He also mentions in (P.32) that in this society the inverted pyramid is taking place because the productive labor is getting narrower and the workers are driven to produce a greater product. Because of the Capitalist system industries who don’t produce anything themselves are thriving and move the surplus and capital.

In conclusion Braverman said, to increase productivity we need to stay at the same job for longer periods of time because we would help and it increases productivity. He mentions that the capitalist society is increasing unproductive workers. He also said that many industries like insurance and real estate are unproductive because these jobs are taking over the productive jobs. As a result unemployment is on the rise.

According to Harry Braverman “In The Making of the U.S working class”, we qualify workers according to social relation the individual has to the work or occupation. Explaining the difference in who is a working class and who is not.

Harry Braverman explains a common ground that creates this class are the people who are hired by others to work, they don’t own the task being completed, they are just rented to complete it. (pg.15-16). The employer is not considered part of the working class as he owns the materials and mass production from which he profit . The profit made the employer retains. The Employees are completing the mass production so they are considered the working class.

Braverman continues to then dissect even further the working class into two groups, The Productive working class employees and The Unproductive working class employs. The employee who are productive are the ones who make something physical to be sold and profited from. The unproductive workers are ones who deal with the organization and paper work of the mass production. (pg. 27 & 30).

He considered the unproductive working class employee are now considered “The Blue Collar”. The productive working class employee are not considered “The White Collar”. The Unproductive working class employee are occupations at real estate, insurance, governments, advertising, accounting, brokerage etc. (pg. 32). These unproductive working class employees were not changed from “White Collar “to “Blue Collar” by their desire to advance but changes in the economy and living methods (pg.32). This method, Unproductive Working “of work have a particular order in which is organize. This method being the need to mass employee = 2X mass production = 4x mass profit. (pg.31) Productive working class employee are the employees of Factories, farms, assembly lines, transportation etc. (pg.27-28). The increase in productive working class employee has been steady since 1820 but it has slowed down due to the increase in unemployment in the general society. (pg.28)

Braverman concludes by stating unemployed is not the cause of neither unproductive working class employee or productive working class employee, but because of the slow rise of new occupation or factories opening for production and change in needs of the population. (pg.33). Studies have shown unemployment are higher after recession than during when occupation production were being created to consequence be the increase in economy (pg.33).

Braverman adds on to say the working class American , in the end , it needs to looked at the way it forms humanity , battle , methods which sustain the most important desire for people. Giving society the thought of working hard to achieve their desire for better. ( pg.35)

Harry Braverman’s Theory of the Evolution of the Working Class

In The Making of the U.S. Working Class, Harry Braverman begins by discussing what the term ‘working class’ means and who it entails.  He explains that the difference between those who are a part of the ‘working class’ and those who are not, does not lie in doing different activities or work.  Rather, the difference lies in the social relations between them (Braverman, p.15).

Members of the ‘working class’ are hired to perform tasks by employers and may also use the employers’ tools to perform these tasks. Now, the employer may also be working and doing the exact type of work that the ‘working class’ that they hire are doing, but the difference lies in the relation they share (Braverman, p.15).  The employer is not part of the ‘working class’ because they are not hired but work for themselves and get to keep the profit that is made and own the tools that are used to produce the product.  A seamstress who owns a dress shop may hire people to help her make dresses.  These hired people would be considered ‘working class’ but the seamstress would not because she owns the shop and all of the materials in it.

Braverman goes on to discuss ways in which the shifts in occupations over time can be organized, and he singles out the shift from productive occupations to unproductive ones (Braverman, p.27). He first describes the type of work that is considered productive, which entails any work that assists in the necessary production of useful things or services (Braverman, pps.27-28).  Braverman adds that a productive worker does not have to be in direct contact with the product itself (Braverman, p.27).  An example of a productive worker is an office clerk who does accounting for a business that produces medical supplies.  The office clerk’s job is necessary to the business even though they do not actually work with the medical supplies.

Braverman then describes the work that is considered unproductive, meaning work that is superfluous to the production of goods (Braverman, p.30). He lists many industries including banking, insurance, advertising, and marketing and one clear example of unproductive work that he provides is the useless ornamentation on cars (Braverman, pps.30-31).

Considering these terms, working class and productive and unproductive labor, it seems as though Braverman is stating that members of the working class can do both productive and unproductive work. Additionally, capitalism has played a role in dividing the working class from those who are not part of it, as well as been the primary factor in the evolution of unproductive labor.