IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijmcph/v6y2012i3p148-169.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capital-labour imbalances: the 'debt' of capitalism?

Author

Listed:
  • Brian O' Boyle

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to expose a growing imbalance between capital and labour as a key cause of the current economic crisis. Over the last 30 years, capitalism has undergone a number of structural changes. Of these, the most important have been a shift in the relationship of the state to accumulation, and a radical attack on the pay and conditions of the working class. Over time this has led to an accentuation of the power of capital and to a recurring problem with 'effective demand'. Increasing exploitation was facilitated by increasing financialisation and it was the interaction of these two processes that staved off the current crisis for so long. Cheap credit essentially replaced real wages. But this was neither a stable relationship nor a sustainable one. Since 2008, the debt economy has been relentlessly unravelling, and the paper ends by assessing the possibilities for a successful resumption of capital accumulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian O' Boyle, 2012. "Capital-labour imbalances: the 'debt' of capitalism?," International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(3), pages 148-169.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijmcph:v:6:y:2012:i:3:p:148-169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=49947
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijmcph:v:6:y:2012:i:3:p:148-169. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=90 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.