162/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
of an institutional sort (bans on dismissal in Latin America,
excessive public-sector hiring in sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia) instead of being based on an increase in demand for labour
or improvements in productivity. (World Bank, 1995)Nothing is better for growth and improvements in the standard of
living of workers than developments of the market that encourage
companies and workers to invest in physical capital, new
techniques and training. Some countries attempted to help
workers with investment policies benefiting industry to the
detriment of agriculture - through protecting from international
competition the jobs of a small number of favoured workers in the
industrial sector, decreeing salary rises and creating excess jobs in
the public sector. These attempts have ended in failure, whether in
Latin America, the former Soviet Union or elsewhere. (World
Bank, 1995)A number of observations can be made about these statements
from the World Bank.
First, there is systematic fudging to present workers in the formal
sector as being privileged on the same level as holders of capital. In
the world according to the World Bank, there is no class antagonism
between capitalists, on the one hand, and workers (whether small
farmers, factory workers, education and healthcare workers, or
unemployed), on the other. According to the World Bank, the real
antagonism is between those with 'privileges' (workers in the
protected sector, state sector employers and private employers
protected by the state), on the one hand, and the poor (the
unemployed, informal sector workers), on the other.
Second, the state played a negative role in most of the economies
of the South and East; its role must therefore be cut back.
Third, attempts at autonomous development all ended in failure.
Fourth, one can sense the glee of the report's authors over the vast
opportunities opened up for neo-liberal policies in regions as different
as Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the former Soviet Union.
This jubilation even takes on a ruthlessly vengeful tone in the
following passage on the countries of the former Soviet Bloc:
Considering themselves to be the champions of labour, they
guaranteed their workers periodic wage increases and cradle-to-