| Pensions are a modern feature of life. They arose as a necessity because of changes in the economic base and the relations among people during the last four hundred years. The transformation of the economy from petty production to industrial mass production precipitated changes in the objective and subjective conditions beyond the control of any individual. Industrial mass production gradually transformed a mostly rural setting of extended families engaged in subsistence agriculture and other petty production and created a modern urban life of small interconnected families within an extended society consisting of a socialized economy, public education, science, information, public health, mass culture and forms of general welfare. The many small families of today, some consisting of but mother and child or even single individuals, are joined together in society. Society has become the modern extended family and people are born to that extended family -- society. The previous subjective outlook reflected the objective conditions of a mostly rural life within a self-sustaining extended family that cared for its members as best it could. The watchword was one for all and all for one within the extended family. The bond of the extended family was nurtured in culture, religion, tradition and fixed in class privilege and rank. Family property, especially productive property such as farmland whether owned or held as a communal or feudal right, and the right of membership in guilds, manors, clans and villages was fiercely guarded and passed on to young family members as the material guarantor of their individual and collective welfare. The old outlook was founded on class privilege and rank, and the belief that the world and social relations were static and ordained by a supreme being and any change contradicted the natural order. Changed Objective Conditions The new objective conditions of today demand a modern outlook of members of society that rejects the old one based on class privilege and rank. The objective basis and practices of extended families no longer exist except in the wealthiest families that own social property but soon they too fall apart as inheritance and infighting divides social property, and bankruptcy consolidates ownership of social property in fewer hands. Most Canadians must sell their capacity to work to gain a living. Inheriting the capacity to work is very different from inheriting a small farm or rank in a protected guild. Successive generations of workers inherit the capacity to work and a claim on the value they produce but not ownership and control of the socialized means of production. Workers depend on a claim on the wealth they produce or service they provide, which in turn is only guaranteed by their capacity to work and whether they can sell that capacity or not. The modern world is fraught with insecurity and crises because the actual producers do not own or control their means of production. When not working for whatever reason, workers must depend as best they can on the wealth generated by other workers and distributed through social programs, but at this time, that dependency lies beyond their control because they do not control the socialized means of production and the general economic and political affairs of the country. The wealth workers create through work to transform the bounty of Mother Nature into use-value is claimed partly by workers who are the actual producers, partly by governments and partly by the small number of owners of parts of the socialized productive forces. The means of production and means of providing services cannot be inherited by the offspring of the actual producers for modern workers only possess their capacity to work, which they sell to earn a living. When workers lose their capacity to work through accident, illness or old-age or when owners of capital refuse to buy their capacity to work for whatever reason and workers' capacity to work languishes unsold on the labour market, they must rely on society to guarantee their welfare, for society is the new extended family of the modern world. Subjective Outlook Lags Behind the Objective Changes The changes in the objective conditions from petty production to industrial mass production necessitate a change in the subjective outlook guiding society. The changed conditions should move humanity towards a broader outlook of personal and social welfare resting in the bosom of society. One for all and all for one no longer resides in the extended family but in the broader family of society. Concern for the well-being of all humanity and society itself is paramount for the well-being of each individual. Harmonizing the relations among individuals and between individuals and their collectives and society itself should guide activity. The well-being of one and all is found in nurturing and developing the human factor/social consciousness and treasuring the collective public property, the socialized means of production and means of providing services. An outlook that reflects the changed conditions would assert the social and political responsibility to defend the security and rights of every individual and the general interests of society into which all are born. This demands as well that the socialized means of production and means of providing services are passed to the next generation of workers in better condition than when they were handed over to the current generation. The rejection of class privilege and the demand for control and inheritance of social property by the actual producers are paramount to a new outlook in conformity with the changed conditions. Guided by a modern outlook, Canadians can build a society of socialized humanity fit for human beings in which the rights of all are recognized and guaranteed. The right to a Canadian-standard pension equivalent to a standard while working is one of those modern rights. |