Job Speedup

Re “Need for Speed Has Workers Seething,” June 19: As long as we maintain a for-profit economy, employers will be faced with the relentless demands of competition. When profits ebb--which they invariably do--economic survival forces owners to cut costs. It is not a universal given, but rather an integral component of our particular economic system, that sees workers defined as commodities--something to be sped up or replaced by technology.

The irony is that in many job sectors we have the capacity to cut our workweeks by half while maintaining robust production levels and the same pay. It is only the irrational logic of capitalism, with its insatiable hunger for profit, that stands in the way of a better life for the vast majority of people in this world.

Joshua Sperber

San Francisco