How about this. Marx is right about many things and this is one of them: as
the rich get richer and fewer in number and the poor get poorer and
constitute almost everybody, what you have is a recipe for extreme social
unrest. Moral and humanitarian arguments aside, this situation is
expensive--to spend millions on security and beating people up every time
the World Bank meets?!? And this waste is expressed in countless other ways
as well. Polarization of the classes necessarily moves the state and now the
stateless rogue capitalists toward fascism, this is the only way to put down
such civil unrest without concessions. We even see this trend emerging in
the US. Keysne did not invent the welfare state simply because he was a nice
guy, the social safety net was an insurance policy for capitalism that it
would not push the world to the brink of class war. Structural adjustments
such as raising inflation without raising the wage are a breach of that
insurance policy. Capitalism is racing a Farari on a short pier these days
and State Farm has closed it's offices. See you all in the river.
Lisa S.
"Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is a merger of state
and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini
on 09/18/2002 12:37 PM, Forstater, Mathew at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I'm trying to collect a list of arguments for raising the minimum wage,
> especially those that apply in 'developing' nation contexts. Fairness,
> equity, social justice arguments and/or efficiency/economic/macro
> arguments are all fine. Do people know of any good articles, books,
> websites that catalogue these arguments? Also, I'd be interested in any
> newer or less well known arguments people may have. (send on or off
> list--I'll collect the ones I get off list and submit them at the end).
> Also I'd be interested in counter-arguments to the usual arguments
> against raising minimum wages. Thanks, Mat
>
