1 / 7SECTOR
A UK LABOUR AND PROVISION PROJECT
CAPITALIST WASTE
How much work do we do because of the way the economy is organised, rather than because society actually needs it?
This platform tracks labour, time and resources absorbed by market structures such as billing, debt collection, competition, duplicated administration and preventable system failure. It asks what work would still be required if essential services were organised around universal provision, sustainability and human need.
Explore the sectors →DIFFERENT
ECONOMIES
ARE POSSIBLEESSENTIAL SERVICES.
A FAIRER FUTURE.
ECONOMIES
ARE POSSIBLEESSENTIAL SERVICES.
A FAIRER FUTURE.
CURRENT COVERAGE
National figures (UK)
Modelled estimates based on current research. These are measures of working-time capacity, not a count of “unnecessary workers”.
◷
23–44m
hours of selected potentially avoidable labour each year
◎
12–23k
FTE-equivalent working-time capacity in selected functions
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2
foundational sectors analysed in depth
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UK
current geographical scope of the platform
Current coverage: water and electricity. National totals will expand as additional sectors are added.
SEE HOW IT WORKS
How to read the data
Capitalist waste does not mean “workers we don’t need”. It means labour capacity that could be released and redirected toward socially necessary work, reduced working time, or greater collective freedom.
NEXT
Explore the platform
Move from the headline claim into the evidence, how the estimates are constructed, and what a different provisioning system could look like.
Sector Analysis
Water and electricity, task by task.
→02Methodology
How capitalist waste is identified and calculated.
→03Alternatives
Foundational economy, UBS, UBI and working time.
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