The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
Nicolas Pons-Vignon is a senior researcher in the School of Economic & Business Sciences (SEBS) at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is a political economist whose research focuses on labour markets, economic policy, and the role of the state in economic development. Nicolas has been the editor of the Global Labour Column since its inception in 2009; he also initiated the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE), which he directed for seven years before joining the Scientific committee. Before coming to South Africa in 2004, he worked in Paris at the OECD Development centre, where he researched violent conflicts in developing countries. Nicolas holds a PhD from EHESS (Paris), an MSc from SOAS (London) and an MA from Sciences-Po (Paris).
Nicolas Pons-Vignon -
Suggesting that workers, meaning those in low-level occupations, are overpaid, has become commonplace in South Africa. It is one facet of a broader line of argument, according to which, workers, especially black workers have been excessively well treated in the post-apartheid dispensation. The other facet of this argument is that this is not just a problem of attitude - one of entitlement justifying laziness, for instance - but also a cause of poverty, since overpaid workers keep others out...
