At 7:03 AM 10/11/96, Paul Zarembka wrote: >Doug, you are repeating the same mistake you made last December. If Bill >Gates spends millions of dollars hiring workers to undertake unproductive >labor at his super mansion in Washington, you fail to recognize that >the wages which go to those workers are from revenue of surplus value. >In your incorrect approach, if all surplus value were used to hire >enormous luxuries for the capitalist class by hiring the appropriate >workers there would be no room for higher wages, whether minimum or not. >In other words, you are looking only at the surface of the national income >accounts, accounts which are constructed to allow dismissal, as >impractical, simple worker class demands like decent wages for all. > >The gimmick demoralizes opposition to capitalism and must be opposed as >strongly and as clearly as possible. And I think most workers would not >see a $20,000 annual income for 40 hours of weekly work as so impossible, >even within capitalism, as you do. We're not talking about Bill Gates hiring a few workers out of revenue to perform unproductive labor. We're talking about giving half the U.S. workforce a big fat raise - that is, bringing the minimum wage to within hailing distance of the present mean. All the faux Marxoid sophistry you want to summon can't hide the fact that that would involve massive transfers of resources and a massive shift in class political power. Those are desirable goals, but impossible under existing arrangements. Am I alone in thinking this? Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
