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The New Left and a handful of scholars, led by Theodore Roszak, author of The Making of a Counter Culture, believe that technology in America has been enshrined as an end, rather than as a means to a better life. They challenge the proposition that society must be organized around the requirements of mass production and technology —and so do the militant young workers. Machines, they say, should work, and people should live; their own personalities are simply more important. If a machine will soon take over their jobs, then there is no reason to dedicate their lives to a dead end. The auto companies and other manufacturers have already designed machines to handle many assembly-line tasks—welding, stamping, hauling and lifting. But for now it is still cheaper to rent people than to buy machines.
The inherent contradiction is that the American worker's dream remains what it always has been: in modern terms, a house in the suburbs and two cars in the breezeway. Yet he is no longer willing to pay the traditional price of increased productivity—or, perhaps more accurately, unable to endure any more speedups. His contradictory yearnings were expressed by one striking G.M. worker in Tarrytown: "What I hope is, by the time my kids grow up, this plant will be automated. They'll sit here in business suits, looking at a panel of instruments, and they will be called technicians or technologists and get twice as much as I do for half the work."
Younger workers want at least part of the dream now. and they have the power to demand it. Unions have often been paid off at the expense of the consumer. The large unions in industries like trucking or construction have far more strength than the small, independent employers, who simply bow to wage demands, accept restrictive labor practices and pass on the increased costs to their customers. But many other industries—notably autos, steel and chemicals—run grave risks of losing markets when they kick prices up. Foreign automakers already build 15% of the cars that Americans buy. G.M.'s new Vega subcompact, which was designed to compete against the Volkswagen, had to be priced $211 higher than the Beetle. Other companies, similarly pressed, are shifting operations overseas for cheaper labor. The production of most typewriters, sewing machines and radios has been moved abroad.
Ticking Time Bomb
The unions are thus in a series of binds. Pressed by their members, they can demand higher wages and get them, but often only at the expense of forcing employers to shift more of the work to other countries or to machines. Even if the unions could force employers to pay higher wages out of profits, that would lead to a cutback in capital investment, postponing technological innovation and labor's share of its benefits.