I agree with you. The attentional and working memory impairments with ADHD are very impairing. Additionally, some elements of companies or institutions driven by capitalist values seem to create environments highly incompatible with autism. Thank your for your continued excellent review and analysis of the text.
As regards the reserve army of labour argument it is true that disabled people are often among the unemployed and are potential workers that businesses can use. However as you state capitalists generally don't want disabled workers - they want workers with high flexibility who can "hit the ground running". Indeed in general businesses do not want the long-term unemployed to fill their job vacancies - they much prefer to have workers already in other jobs or those who have only just left employment, seeing both such groups as much better at adapting to a new job. This is why the long-term unemployed including those with disabilities have so many problems getting jobs. Unfortunately the jobs they are offered are usually the most challenging ones with poor pay, poor prospects and bad working conditions. These days these will often be zero-hour contracts which expect total flexibility from workers which few who are disabled can offer. I agree that the small number of "neurodiverse" workers that businesses want predominantly comprise those with special technical skills - often in STEM subjects - which outweigh social difficulties. The great majority of neurodiverse workers are not wanted and are seen as "liabilities". Nonsense is spoken about employers wanting "new ways of thinking", etc, but employers want conformity far more. The workforce is reproduced in the sense of new sets of workers very similar in backgrounds and outlooks to those who have left. The employment world is not a welcoming one for anyone who is "different".
Disabled people are hardly good candidates for surplus labour, which is already provided by the unemployed young and migrants. As you say, capitalism is generally hostile to disability and they have had to be forced to grant the limited support for disabled people that exists now, by decades of political activism - it wasn't voluntary on their part at all - and in countries where capitalism has been less challenged by organised labour, the situation for disabled people is usually worse for exactly that reason. The whole NDM narrative that those of us with neurodisabilities have some sort of unique creativity etc vs 'neurotypicals' which are presented as a homogenous block is absolutely ridiculous (and dangerous). Yes a diversity of thinking styles, minds, viewpoints is good for a functioning society, but as you correctly pointed out, that is a universal human reality. Every one of us has a unique mind and views the world ever so slightly differently due to our upbringings, cultures, locations and innate personalities. To reduce the creativity or viewpoints of autistic people to just their autism really doesn't seem right to me.
Capitalism might benefit from people who are on the borderline of disability. Because they might provide labor in some circumstances. But it does not benefit from most disabled people. In fact people like to remind me how I am a burden to society over here in the USA.
I agree with you. The attentional and working memory impairments with ADHD are very impairing. Additionally, some elements of companies or institutions driven by capitalist values seem to create environments highly incompatible with autism. Thank your for your continued excellent review and analysis of the text.
As regards the reserve army of labour argument it is true that disabled people are often among the unemployed and are potential workers that businesses can use. However as you state capitalists generally don't want disabled workers - they want workers with high flexibility who can "hit the ground running". Indeed in general businesses do not want the long-term unemployed to fill their job vacancies - they much prefer to have workers already in other jobs or those who have only just left employment, seeing both such groups as much better at adapting to a new job. This is why the long-term unemployed including those with disabilities have so many problems getting jobs. Unfortunately the jobs they are offered are usually the most challenging ones with poor pay, poor prospects and bad working conditions. These days these will often be zero-hour contracts which expect total flexibility from workers which few who are disabled can offer.
I agree that the small number of "neurodiverse" workers that businesses want predominantly comprise those with special technical skills - often in STEM subjects - which outweigh social difficulties. The great majority of neurodiverse workers are not wanted and are seen as "liabilities". Nonsense is spoken about employers wanting "new ways of thinking", etc, but employers want conformity far more. The workforce is reproduced in the sense of new sets of workers very similar in backgrounds and outlooks to those who have left. The employment world is not a welcoming one for anyone who is "different".
Disabled people are hardly good candidates for surplus labour, which is already provided by the unemployed young and migrants. As you say, capitalism is generally hostile to disability and they have had to be forced to grant the limited support for disabled people that exists now, by decades of political activism - it wasn't voluntary on their part at all - and in countries where capitalism has been less challenged by organised labour, the situation for disabled people is usually worse for exactly that reason.
The whole NDM narrative that those of us with neurodisabilities have some sort of unique creativity etc vs 'neurotypicals' which are presented as a homogenous block is absolutely ridiculous (and dangerous). Yes a diversity of thinking styles, minds, viewpoints is good for a functioning society, but as you correctly pointed out, that is a universal human reality. Every one of us has a unique mind and views the world ever so slightly differently due to our upbringings, cultures, locations and innate personalities. To reduce the creativity or viewpoints of autistic people to just their autism really doesn't seem right to me.
Capitalism might benefit from people who are on the borderline of disability. Because they might provide labor in some circumstances. But it does not benefit from most disabled people. In fact people like to remind me how I am a burden to society over here in the USA.
Guess that you covered this! I wrote it before I listened to the whole thing because I will forget what I was thinking if I wait until the end.
I wish there was a universal income. It would make disability so much simpler.