>>> Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/30/00 04:40PM >>>
At 03:55 PM 3/30/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >>> Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/30/00 03:06PM >>>
>quoth Krugman, in yesterday's NY TIMES: >For example, how do you feel about
>the "living wage" movement, which in effect wants a large increase
>in the minimum wage? That would certainly increase the incomes of the
>lowest-paid workers; but it would also surely have at least some adverse
>effect on the number of jobs available. <
>
>____________
>
>CB: This is essentially the same argument that Karl Marx critiques in
>_Value, Price and Profit_ , just in case Krugman thinks we forgot. Wages
>can go up without lessening jobs , if profits go down.
To defend Krugman for a second, if profits go down, won't that discourage
capitalist accumulation, while encouraging business to look for greener
pastures in poor countries that offer low wages, docile workforces, zero
environmental restrictions?
___________
CB: I think you are right. Maybe Marx was trying to nudge people toward the idea that
the only way to cut profits is to expropriate the expropriators, but here he was only
making a first , reformist step type of argument. He was arguing against people who
thought that capitalist organization of society is natural and the only way.
We'd only really be able to succeed with this by passing laws that don't allow
corporations to move to other countries without permission. In other words, we would
have to have a Constitutional Amendment on the Takings Clause ( See my paper on such a
Constitutional Amendment). So, GM couldn't move its plant from Ypsilanti , Michigan to
Mexico without the permission of a People's Board, madeup of autoworkers from the Ypsi
Plant, etc.
CB
__________
The standard arguments in favor of "living wages" is that paying them
either won't hurt profits or will actually help them. (At a minimum, pay
living wages will lower profits by just a little, which shouldn't hurt
accumulation since profits are already pretty high by historical
standards.) These arguments are also used to defend trade unionism.
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~jdevine
