[PEN-L:864] Re: Re: Re: query
Jim Deivne wrote:
Does anyone on this list know of research indicating that the percentage of
workers employed in the "primary sectors" of good jobs and relative job
security has been shrinking relative to the total?
Writing from Bolivia, Tom Kruse asks the appropriate question: In what country?
I was asking about the US, though of course it would be interesting to hear
if this is happening in other countries. It probably is.
Tom responds:
I'll drum up some figgers in a minute or two -- maybe more like a week,
honestly. I do know this, though, and the forthcoming figures will show it
for Bolivia:
- work in the "primary sector" is getting more precarious both at the level
of the individual's conditions (salary, contracts, etc.) and the ability to
pursue organizing, collective baragining, etc.
- the number of people in the "primary sector" is getting smaller
- the resultant surplus of economically active population is "absobed" in
largest part by the "informal sector"
- "absorbed" in quotes, because though they find "work" there, they often
don't get anything near the kind of employment that puts food on the table
("underemploymetn"), that is, a salary that covers the cost of the
reproduction of the labor force
- meanwhile, the profitability of informal sector enterprises -- those
thousand points of micro-entrepreneurial light -- dives as competition increases
- thus giving lie to the notion that somehow micro-enterprises will save the
world from "poverty", etc.
- and all this in an economy where the wage bill is a very small part of the
costs of production. Productivity in "primary sector" mfgr., according to
the ILO, has increased 6.5%/year since 1990, while remunderation to has
declined 0.9%/year in the same period. And now businesses say labor must be
made more flexible to compete.
Tom
Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia
Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:865] 13% Of Black Men Ineligible to Vote
From: The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #65 -- October 30, 1998 A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE (To subscribe to this list, visit http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html.) [snip] 2. STUDY: 13% Of Black Men Ineligible to Vote A study released jointly last week by The Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch finds that 13%, approximately 1.4 million African American men, are ineligible to vote -- many permanently -- due to their criminal records. That percentage is seven times the national average. Overall, 3.9 million Americans have been disenfranchised. Laws vary widely between states regarding a convicted felon's right to vote. 31 states restrict voting for those on probation or parole, while in 14 states, a single felony conviction can lead to lifetime disenfranchisement. In Arizona and Maryland, two-time offenders lose their eligibility for life. Marc Mauer, Assistant Director of The Sentencing Project, spoke with The Week Online. WOL: This report seems to have hit a nerve with people -- not unlike a previous Sentencing Project report which found that one in three young black males in America were under criminal justice supervision -- what kind of response has the organization gotten? MAUER: We've been very pleased with the response to this study. A lot of people were shocked to hear about these findings and the policies that created them. Most people didn't realize the level of disenfranchisement. Also, I think that there's been a recognition that harsh criminal justice policies have contributed to the explosion of these numbers over the past twenty-five years or so. WOL: Do you think that the reaction will translate into action on the ground? MAUER: We've been very happy to hear from people in a number of different states who are thinking about beginning litigation or introducing legislation as a result of the report, to try to overturn some of the state-level policies in this regard. So we're hoping to see some movement. It's encouraging to see the report spur this kind of interest. WOL: What kind of impact does this level of disenfranchisement have in the real world? MAUER: Well, we're talking about almost four million people here. So while its difficult to know what impact this has had electorally, it is a fairly substantial potential voting block. I think particularly when we look at the impact on the black community, which has been so disproportionately impacted, it really points to the fact that we as a society -- whether consciously or not -- we are diluting the voting strength of the black community through this really massive disenfranchisement. In some communities the number of disenfranchised voters is very high, and so it's likely to have both an electoral and a sociological impact. WOL: So what's the next step? MAUER: We're hoping to capitalize on the interest that the report has garnered to see if we can promote more discussion and activity in this area. Also, we'd like to stimulate discussion and research on some of the other consequences of enforcement and drug policy over the past few decades. WOL: Finally, could you tell us what impact the Drug War has had on this massive disenfranchisement? MAUER: Clearly, over the last fifteen years, drug policy has been the primary catalyst of the explosion of prison populations, particularly with regard to minority communities. It is the one area that if we could make policy changes in that area that would make an enormous impact on some of the disturbing numbers that we see. (The Sentencing Project/Human Rights Watch study, which is titled "Losing the Vote: The Impact of Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States," can be found online on the Human Rights Watch web site at http://www.hrw.org/reports98/vote/. The Sentencing Project is online at http://www.sentencingproject.org. The third annual conference of the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy, a project that is affiliated with the Sentencing Project, will be held in Bethesda, Maryland on Nov. 12-14 -- for information, call (202) 628-1903, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://www.crimepolicy.org. [snip] Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:873] RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: family II
Max What I had in mind was natalism, a la France, hardly eugenics. Still, natalism is obnoxious, since it is supposed to build up the "native" population. France did it to build up their army, I believe. This would help them fight the "Huns" and Algerians. . . . Not necessarily. It could aim to grow the 'national' population, as opposed to the native one. Immigrants from Algeria, Martinique, etc. can be perfectly French and natalism could be pushed in this spirit, and may be now for all I know. I believe the original impulse stemmed more from a desire to keep up with the U.K. and Germany, rather than with respect to the colonies. You are right that it verges on national chauvinism, or could be constructed in that light. But that's not the only outcome. Au revoir, MBS
[PEN-L:869] United Church makes res-school apology
--- Forwarded Message Follows --- Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 00:37:42 -0800 To:(Recipient list suppressed) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (S.I.S.I.S.) Subject: United Church makes res-school apology 1. United Church makes res-school apology 2. Res-schools: Government, Church "knew" [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news articles may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. They are provided for reference only.] :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: UNITED CHURCH APOLOGIZES FOR ABUSE The Vancouver Sun, October 28, 1998, by Douglas Todd The moderator of the United Church of Canada officially apologized Tuesday for his denomination's complicity in the "pain and suffering" caused by church-run residential schools for native Indians. Saying B.C. has become the prime testing ground for mending the centuries-old rift between native Indians and other Canadians, Bill Phipps said his denomination is "truly and most humbly sorry" for those who were physically, sexually and emotionally abused as students at United Church-run residential schools. The United Church statement is arguably the furthest-reaching apology any group has issued on residential schools. Phipps said he doesn't know of any Canadian denomination or government that has issued such a "bald" and specific acknowledgment of blame for residential schools. The leader of Canada's largest Protestant denomination said it's important to issue the apology at the same time the church is contesting a recent precedent-setting B.C. Supreme Court decision that concluded the United Church and the federal government are equally liable for compensating victims of a Port Alberni residential school. The United Church of Canada faces almost 100 civil lawsuits relating to how it ran some of Canada's 130 residential schools. Many of those lawsuits have been aired in court this month by former students at the United Church's Port Alberni residential school, where former dormitory supervisor Arthur Plint has already been convicted of molesting dozens of native boys. "The B.C. lawsuits have made the residential school system the lightning rod, or even a metaphor, for our over-all relation to the First Nations people," Phipps said in a telephone interview. While many in the United Church are justifiably nervous that Tuesday's apology will increase the financial liability of the 800,000-member United Church to civil lawsuits, Phipps said, the vast majority of the denomination's 70-member executive decided this week it was worth the risk. However, Willie Blackwater, one of the roughly 30 native victims of Plint who is seeking damages, said the United Church should also accept legal responsibility if it's serious about apologizing. "They should advise the court that they are prepared to accept legal responsibility equally with Canada for the assaults we all suffered while at the school, and that they are now prepared to compensate us for those assaults," Blackwater said. But Phipps said the United Church wanted to issue the apology at this point because questions of legal liability are "very complex... and subject to argument and debate and legal niceties." Phipps said he was terribly saddened by the death last weekend of Darryl Watts, one of the students of the Port Alberni school in the 1950s and '60s who was suing the United Church and the government of Canada. If Watts' drowning death is determined to be a suicide, as many suspect, he would be the second suicide among sexual-abuse victims at the Port Alberni school. Natives across Canada have to date launched more than 1,400 civil lawsuits aimed at Canadian churches and the federal government, which funded the schools. The majority of the lawsuits are directed at the Oblate Brothers and the Catholic church, which ran most of Canada's residential schools. Former Prince George Bishop Hubert O'Connor and several other Catholic clergy have been either convicted or charged with sex crimes while operating B.C. residential schools in the 1960s. Catholic officials have expressed worry that the lawsuits could bankrupt churches. On Tuesday, a $1.7-billion class-action lawsuit was launched against the federal government and the Anglican Church of Canada by former students of an Ontario residential school and their family members. Russell Raikes, the London Ont., lawyer representing the natives, told reporters at a press conference Tuesday it is the largest financial claim in regard to alleged abuses at a residential school. About 360 natives are already on board, and Raikes said he expects more than 1,000 former students from Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford to take part in the suit. Shawn Tupper of the federal department of indian affairs said it is the first class-action lawsuit dealing with residential schools brought against the federal government. Phipps' apology on
[PEN-L:876] Re: crisis is over?
The BLS Daily Reported, __Consumer spending greatly exceeded income growth in September, triggering a negative personal savings rate for the first time in almost 40 years, but analysts caution against reading too much into the development. __The National Association of Purchasing Management said that its monthly survey showed that manufacturing activity slowed last month for the fifth month in a row. ... Purchasing managers say that the prices their companies are paying for materials and components continue to fall rapidly. ... Corporate profit growth stumbled in the three months that ended in September, producing the first year-to-year drop since the nation was clawing its way out of the recession in 1991. Regards, Tom Walker ^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:877] Re: RE: Gore v. Bush?
On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, Max Sawicky wrote: Funny thing is, class seemed to play more in some of the Southern Dem victories, and in some so-called 'right-wing' democratic campaigns. The model is the outgoing Georgia governor Zell Miller, who was 'tough on crime' but used lottery proceeds to subsidize higher education for lower-income students. MBS According to my correspondent in Auburn, Ala, proposing using a lottery for higher ed bucks really helped the Demo (forget his name) to win there over the egregious theocrat Fob James. It seems if you dangle college tuition in front of even the most devout bible thumpers, they take the money and run. The funny thing is that James had a tough primary and if Blount had won the primary the Repups probably would have won the election. James had just gotten too weird and scary for many of the voters. -- Joseph Noonan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:878] the myth of the state.
At 10:33 AM 11/4/98 -0800, you wrote: Max asked, What in tarnation is "the myth of the state"? Tom answers: Another way of saying "the myth of the state" would be the "story of the origin of the state". It can be seen in the contrast between John Locke (whose ideas summarize the liberal vision of issues of property rights and the like) and Karl Marx. John Locke and similar social contract theorists see the state as arising from a voluntary agreement of the governed (consent). It's sometimes admitted that the social contract is mythical, but Locke argues that because of "tacit consent" (the fact that people aren't always up in arms yelling to abolish the state), the state's origins are _as if_ there had been a social contract. Along with this, Locke assumed that private property rights are "natural," exist without government or even the acceptance of others. Marx (or the Marxian tradition), on the other hand, sees the state as arising (i.e., becoming a separate sector of society that monopolizes the legal use of force in the country) at the same time as class society, which was thousands of years ago. (According to V. Gordon Childe, this happened in Mesopotamia.) Military force is no longer a matter of a community defending itself against outsiders but a matter of one part of the community defending itself not only against outsiders but against the propertyless within the community. Property rights of various sorts arose at the same time as the state and class relations. Since then, the state has changed and adapted (rarely going through periods of anarchy), as have property rights. While Locke's theory is mostly mythical, Marx's theory aims to help us understand and learn from what actually happened in history. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:867] Canada inequality and homeless
Following are two articles from the world socialist web site Homelessness and hunger in Ontario By Lee Parsons 23 October 1998 Several reports over the past weeks have drawn attention to the growth of hunger and homelessness across Canada, and in Ontario in particular. One such study conducted by the Canadian Association of Food Banks, called "Hunger Count 1998," reveals that the number of people forced to use food banks has increased dramatically in the past several years. More than 700,000 people used one of 2,141 food banks last year in Canada, an increase of 5.4 percent over 1996. The sharpest rise was in Nova Scotia, which saw an increase of 40 percent. Food bank use in Ontario, while climbing only 2.1 percent, has recorded an increase of over 30 percent in the last three years. The Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto is the largest of its kind in Ontario and has become a permanent necessity since its establishment nearly 20 years ago. While the food bank issues reports regularly, the approach of winter in Ontario has focused media attention on a number of its recent publications that look at the broader effects of poverty in one of the wealthiest cities in North America. While a good deal of attention, legitimately enough, has been paid to the plight of poor children in Ontario, who account for 41.5 percent of food bank users, the poverty of their parents and other adults is often overlooked. Revealing statistics in one report from Daily Bread, "Who goes hungry?," show that among adults polled who use food banks, the majority were childless and a disproportionate two-thirds were in their thirties or forties--prime earning years. With incomes of between 25 to 50 percent below the government low-income cutoff or poverty line, the percentage of those counted as the poorest of the poor is increasing. Another study reveals the connection between poor health and hunger, as well as other important features of systemic poverty in Ontario and in its largest urban center in particular. Entitled "No Apples today ... maybe tomorrow," the report declares that with almost one-third of those who use food banks suffering poor health, hunger is a health issue. While it may come as no surprise that those who lack adequate nutrition are also more likely to have poor health, this report is valuable in elaborating concretely the impact of the decline in living standards in the province. However, as the study itself states: "Food banks are not a viable option for addressing the long term problem of poor health and hunger." On another front the Toronto disaster relief committee issued a report last week calling homelessness a national disaster that should be treated like last winter's devastating ice storm. Ontario Premier Mike Harris responded by saying, "I don't know whether it's a national state of emergency at this point of time. I don't know whether it's any worse than last year." Advocacy groups have raised the issue of homelessness in anticipation of a large shortfall in available space. Current shelters are filled to capacity. Last year in Toronto 26,000 people used emergency shelters, and that number is expected to increase over the next 12 months. It is estimated that 700 new beds will have to be found to meet the demand even if it stays at last year's level. Some 4,700 individuals are currently homeless in Toronto, with about 4,200 of them staying in emergency shelters and the rest sleeping outside. The city has set up a task force to find a long-term solution, but without adequate funding officials are pressed simply to meet immediate needs. Responding to a task force report on homelessness
[PEN-L:875] RE: family/religion/economics
Max asked, What in tarnation is "the myth of the state"? MBS Another way of saying "the myth of the state" would be the "story of the origin of the state". It isn't necessarily a lie or a falsehood but it is necessarily a fiction. It is a fiction because it tells about something that occured before history. In the case of Genesis, the myth is that God kept making special arrangements with a particular line of descendents, the patriarchs, which became incrementally more state-like in their scope. Roughly one could schematicize the evolution presented in the myth as - revelation of a divine covenant with Noah's descendents (the rainbow) - insistence on total obedience to the law (Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac) - granting of a territorial domain (Canaan to Isaac) - assumption of an administrative/economic function (Joseph's 'finance ministry' to Pharoah) So there you go: a constitution, law, territory and administration. Looks like a state, quacks like a state, must be a state. Now this myth is pretty primitive as regards to its explanatory coherence or its grounding in empirical evidence. But at the same time it is extremely powerful as a transmiter of "revealed truth". That's simply to say that the story has been told and retold for generations -- first as oral narrative, second as 'scripture' and third as literary and popular source. This myth of the state, by the way, is particularly salient for the U.S. where the biblical imagery has been associated with everything from the pilgrims landing at plymouth rock to the westward expansion (and genocide of the aboriginals [canaanites?]) to manifest destiny. You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. And you can take prayers out of the schools, but you can't take the schools out of the prayers. Regards, Tom Walker ^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:879] Re: Re: crisis is over?
At 10:44 AM 11/4/98 -0800,Tom wrote: __Consumer spending greatly exceeded income growth in September, triggering a negative personal savings rate for the first time in almost 40 years, but analysts caution against reading too much into the development. etc. Doug will point out (correctly) that there's a difference between the economy slowing (or going into a recession) and a crisis, where capitalism is having a hard time reproducing itself over time without drastic changes in its structure. (And it's quite different from a revolutionary crisis, where people are rebelling all over the globe, undermining governments and economies.) Of course, the slowdown and potential recession in the US may _spark_ a crisis if the slowdown encourages the world economy to get in even worse shape, which would then encourage the US economy to fall further, etc. Anyway, _why_ is saving negative? is it because the stock-market boom (now gone) encouraged excessive consumption, presumably by the upper middles and the uppers? (the wealth effect, expectations effect) Or is simply that income slowed rapidly so that consumer consumption plans fell behind, staying at a high level not justified by current income? Either way, we should expect consumption to slow in the future, since the stock market is in the doldrums and as consumers adjust their plans to reality. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:883] overcapacity - 'Ford chief predicts doom'
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --=_NextPart_000_0017_01BE07FE.2D3E7C70 Ford chief predicts doom - Says 'dogfight' will kill all but six companies (Reuters) The auto industry is in a savage "global dogfight' that will speed consolidation and tumble some companies into failure, says Ford Motor Co. chairman Alex Trotman. In a speech yesterday to business executives, he predicted that of the 40 or so auto companies in existence, only six will survive into the next century, with two based in the United States, two in Europe and two in Japan. Current global overcapacity equal to 19 million vehicles a year will rise to 22 million by 2002, he said. "That's why I've been predicting for several years massive industry consolidation with mergers, acquisitions and outright failures." end I would have jumped at Michael's suggestion to discuss overcapacity, but as a non-economist, I'm reduced to little snapshots in the papers, such as this one. Anyone have any broader data??? I'm not an economist, but neither do you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the current financial crisis has something to do with the decline in productive investment outlets after the decline of the post war boom, and even if our glorious leaders succeed in managing the current crisis, there's more hard times ahead. --=_NextPart_000_0017_01BE07FE.2D3E7C70 !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN" HTML HEAD http-equiv=3DContent-Type META content=3D'"MSHTML 4.72.2106.6"' name=3DGENERATOR /HEAD BODY bgColor=3D#ff DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2Ford chief predicts doomSPAN=20 class=3D807445518-04111998FONT color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2 = - Says=20 'dogfight' will kill all but six companies/FONT/SPAN/FONT/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2/FONT/SPAN/FONTnbsp;/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2(Reuters) The auto industry is in = a savage=20 quot;global dogfight' that will speed consolidation and tumble some = companies=20 into failure, says Ford Motor Co. chairman Alex=20 Trotman./FONT/SPAN/FONT/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2/FONT/SPAN/FONTnbsp;/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2In a speech yesterday to business = executives, he=20 predicted that of the 40 or so auto companies in existence, only six = will=20 survive into the next century, with two based in the United States, two = in=20 Europe and two in Japan./FONT/SPAN/FONT/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2/FONT/SPAN/FONTnbsp;/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2Current global overcapacity equal = to 19 million=20 vehicles a year will rise to 22 million by 2002, he=20 said./FONT/SPAN/FONT/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2/FONT/SPAN/FONTnbsp;/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2quot;That's why I've been = predicting for=20 several years massive industry consolidation with mergers, acquisitions = and=20 outright failures.quot;/FONT/SPAN/FONT/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2/FONT/SPAN/FONTnbsp;/DIV DIVFONT color=3D#00 size=3D2SPAN = class=3D807445518-04111998FONT=20 color=3D#00 face=3DArial size=3D2/FONT/SPAN/FONTSPAN=20 class=3D807445518-04111998FONT color=3D#00 face=3DArial = size=3D2...=20 end/FONT/SPAN/DIV DIVSPAN class=3D807445518-04111998FONT color=3D#00 face=3DArial = size=3D2/FONT/SPANnbsp;/DIV DIVSPAN class=3D807445518-04111998FONT color=3D#00 face=3DArial = size=3D2I=20 would have jumped at Michael's suggestion to discuss overcapacity, but = as a=20 non-economist, I'm reduced to little snapshots in the papers, such as = this one.=20 Anyone have any broader data???/FONT/SPAN/DIV DIVSPAN class=3D807445518-04111998FONT color=3D#00 face=3DArial = size=3D2/FONT/SPANnbsp;/DIV DIVSPAN class=3D807445518-04111998FONT color=3D#00 face=3DArial = size=3D2I'm=20 not an economist, but neither do you have to be a rocket scientist to = figure out=20 that the current financial crisis has something to do with the decline = in=20 productive investment outlets after the decline of the post war boom, = and even=20 if our glorious leaders succeed in managing the current crisis, there's = more=20 hard times ahead./FONT/SPAN/DIV DIVnbsp;/DIV/BODY/HTML --=_NextPart_000_0017_01BE07FE.2D3E7C70--
[PEN-L:889] RE: Re: overcapacity - 'Ford chief predicts doom'
At 02:19 PM 11/4/98 -0500, you wrote: Ford chief predicts doom - this font is so small that I read it as "Ford thief." Sorry. Ford chief predicts doom - Says 'dogfight' will kill all but six companies (Reuters) The auto industry is in a savage "global dogfight' that will speed consolidation and tumble some companies into failure, says Ford Motor Co. chairman Alex Trotman. In a speech yesterday to business executives, he predicted that of the 40 or so auto companies in existence, only six will survive into the next century, with two based in the United States, two in Europe and two in Japan. Current global overcapacity equal to 19 million vehicles a year will rise to 22 million by 2002, he said. "That's why I've been predicting for several years massive industry consolidation with mergers, acquisitions and outright failures." end I would have jumped at Michael's suggestion to discuss overcapacity, but as a non-economist, I'm reduced to little snapshots in the papers, such as this one. Anyone have any broader data??? I'm not an economist, but neither do you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the current financial crisis has something to do with the decline in productive investment outlets after the decline of the post war boom, and even if our glorious leaders succeed in managing the current crisis, there's more hard times ahead. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:890] Re: Open Letter to the Nation magazine
At 05:30 PM 11/4/98 -0400, Victor Navasky wrote: Yeah, but... The only problem is Alex Cockburn is not our radical columnist. Maybe he once was (and he is certainly a brilliant polemicist), but these days he spends much of his Nation time attacking people on the left. What he is, is Alex, himself, unique. (In fact, it's Christopher who has been calling for Clinton's impeachment, and Patricia Williams and Katha P. who have been devoting most of their column space to social policy issues from rad perspectives.) Read up! I guess maybe the problem is that we have different concepts of what it means to be radical, or else I was not clear enough to start off with. I am a Marxist and have been so since 1967. The Nation has attracted many independent Marxist readers in the past 20 years or so as the sectarian Marxist left imploded. With all due respect to Patricia Williams and Katha P., they are not really as radical as they might seem to you. Neither are the bobsey twins, Cockburn and Hitchens for that matter. Although it had occurred to me to suggest some writers who would appeal to people like myself, it subsequently seemed like a waste of time. In any case, here goes: --Dan Georgakas --Paul Buhle --Alan Wald --James Petras --Tariq Ali --George Lipsitz --David Roediger --Scott McLemee (much sharper than Alterman) --Kevin Kelley --Lucy Lippard --Norman Finkelstein I suspect that if you took a survey of your readership, you would find many more Marxists than you would have anticipated. You simply can not take us for granted. The Democratic Party does this with blacks, Latinos, gays and women. Marxism is a different sort of thing. It is a deeply rooted set of ideas that takes enormous will-power to uphold in a society like this. It is actually a tribute to the kind of magazine that the Nation was in the past that so many of us were loyal to it. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:892] Re: Re: Open Letter to the Nation magazine
Louis wrote: It's really quite simple. Cockburn is the house radical at the Nation. I dunno. What about Katha Pollitt, whose politics are (in my estimation) better than AC's. and Hitchens, who may be an arrogant ass and have some bad politics but has a lot of lefty-but-not-liberal things to say? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:893] Re: www.thenation.com/~louscorner.html
I'm not sure the conclusion of this dialogue takes clairvoyance, Louis. Navasky will check your Website and invite you aboard as the house Red. The whole world will be rocked from TriBeCa to Claremont Ave. Go for it! valis Shit. Navasky should come to me hat in hands to request permission to contribute to www.panix.com/~marxism.html, not the other way around. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:868] corporate salaries
We have already noted that university administrators are using corporate salaries as the appropriate template for their own. Someone just wrote me to tell me that clergy who run independent churches are doing the same. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:880] RCPT: Re: Valis on Cockburn III
Confirmation of reading: your message - Date: 3 Nov 98 21:33 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:849] Re: Valis on Cockburn III Was read at 21:24, 4 Nov 98. Patrick Bond home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094, South Africa office: University of the Witwatersrand Graduate School of Public and Development Management phone: 2711-488-5917 fax: 2711-484-2729 home phone: 2711-614-8088 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:887] Re: Re: Re: crisis is over?
Jim Devine wrote: Anyway, _why_ is saving negative? is it because the stock-market boom (now gone) encouraged excessive consumption, presumably by the upper middles and the uppers? (the wealth effect, expectations effect) Or is simply that income slowed rapidly so that consumer consumption plans fell behind, staying at a high level not justified by current income? The savings rate has been in a downtrend since like forever. No reason to stop at 0, eh? Look for a chart in the next LBO. Don't forget there's lots of between-household lending going on - the rich people are lending their savings to those below them. Doug
Re: [PEN-L:848] Re: Valis on Cockburn III
Oh dear, somebody here is getting much more serious than the situation warrants. Comrade Eric (I can call you that, can't I? You can call me valis - lower case - in either assent or protest), Comrade Eric, I'm just sort of a court jester around here, an alarm clock sent by a merciful deity who weeps at the sight of sectarian squabbling and wants his leftish servants to awaken to the larger fray. You're Flava Flav? Rg
[PEN-L:896] Re: Re: Open Letter to the Nation magazine
Louis, why don't you begin gathering signatures of those who agree with you on this matter. You caninclude me. At 05:30 PM 11/4/98 -0400, Victor Navasky wrote: Yeah, but... The only problem is Alex Cockburn is not our radical columnist. Maybe he once was (and he is certainly a brilliant polemicist), but these days he spends much of his Nation time attacking people on the left. What he is, is Alex, himself, unique. (In fact, it's Christopher who has been calling for Clinton's impeachment, and Patricia Williams and Katha P. who have been devoting most of their column space to social policy issues from rad perspectives.) Read up! I guess maybe the problem is that we have different concepts of what it means to be radical, or else I was not clear enough to start off with. I am a Marxist and have been so since 1967. The Nation has attracted many independent Marxist readers in the past 20 years or so as the sectarian Marxist left imploded. With all due respect to Patricia Williams and Katha P., they are not really as radical as they might seem to you. Neither are the bobsey twins, Cockburn and Hitchens for that matter. Although it had occurred to me to suggest some writers who would appeal to people like myself, it subsequently seemed like a waste of time. In any case, here goes: --Dan Georgakas --Paul Buhle --Alan Wald --James Petras --Tariq Ali --George Lipsitz --David Roediger --Scott McLemee (much sharper than Alterman) --Kevin Kelley --Lucy Lippard --Norman Finkelstein I suspect that if you took a survey of your readership, you would find many more Marxists than you would have anticipated. You simply can not take us for granted. The Democratic Party does this with blacks, Latinos, gays and women. Marxism is a different sort of thing. It is a deeply rooted set of ideas that takes enormous will-power to uphold in a society like this. It is actually a tribute to the kind of magazine that the Nation was in the past that so many of us were loyal to it. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html) -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
STEWARDS CORPORATION MOVEMENT - A NEW MOVEMENT OF POOR PEOPLE
RADICALLY DIFFERENT THAN OTHER APPROACHES. USES `CONTRACTS OF CARE AND OBLIGATION'. NO ONE SHOULD BE LEFT TO STRUGGLE ALONE! STEWARDS Corporation Movement - A NEW MOVEMENT OF POOR PEOPLE Website: http://www.stewards.net Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- This is an introduction to the Stewards Corporation Movement. If you want to inform other individuals or listserves in your network about this movement, please forward this message to them. Thanks, Eric --- Hi there, The Stewards Corporation Movement, also known as the Stewards Planetary House, is a new just-being-born movement of working and non-working poor people who seek to become increasingly able to work together to care for one another together with the planet. Our approach is highly inquiry-oriented and includes new methods of social organization, economics, information technology, childcare, personal development, care of the earth, `co-obligation contracts to work together to care for one another', and much else. Our approach could, in a nutshell, be summed up as: `Organize the planetary underclass as the Stewards of the world!" The SPH also combines the seven ways people have traditionally sought liberation: The human potential movement, progressive social change, religion or spirituality, ecology, feminism, progressive art, and science. The Stewards Planetary House is open to all poor people, wherever they may be on the planet. People are needed to help us to begin our program of `organizing the poor people of the world - beginning with ourselves - to work together as Stewards to care for one another together with the world. One element that strongly distinguishes our approach from others is that while supporting all progressive struggles for greater freedom, equality, and democracy, we place emphasis as well on the new principal of `co- obligation', which entails the use of `Stewards Democratic contracts' through which we enter into formal and informal obligations which we undertake, outside the capitalist system, to work together to meet one anothers needs and to care for one another and the planet. This is Stewardship. The URL for our homepage, where you can read about us, and connect with us, is: http://www.stewards.net Along with many other documents of interest to poor people and their allies, the website includes an important new book entitled:`The Stewards Corporation: A System for Total Human Development'. This book sets out a model for a `corporation of a new type', which includes within itself: poor people's social unities called `Stewards Houses' (these are not primarily physical structures but social units of cooperation which can be used by anyone affiliated with a Stewards Corporation including homeless people); poor people's production systems called `Stewards Services'; poor people's education systems called `Stewards Guilds'; a poor people's democratic management, ownership, and governance system for the Stewards corporation called a `Stewards Polis'; poor people's use of advanced information technology for communication, collaboration, and coordination; poor people's ownership and management of land; and much more. The book on the Stewards Corporation is accessible from the `Contents' page, which is accessible from the homepage. We are involved in attempting to establish the first functioning Stewards Corporation here in Vancouver, British Columbia. Please call email or call us for further information. In case you - like ourselves - dislike the oppressive and life-fragmenting aspects of traditional business corporations, rest assured that the `Stewards Corporation' are corporations of a VERY different type! If you are interested in entering into regular dialogue and communication with us regarding the theoretical and practical steps involved in developing a Stewards Corporation in your area, please e-mail us at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or call us. If you want to inform other individuals or listserves in your network about this movement, please forward this message to them. Cordially yours, Solidarity, Blessings of light, Eric Sommer coordinator of B.C. Stewards Corporation http://www.stewards.net and The Chiapas Alert Network. http://www.stewards.net/chiapas/10.htm
[PEN-L:894] Re: www.thenation.com/~louscorner.html II
quoth Louis: I'm not sure the conclusion of this dialogue takes clairvoyance, Louis. Navasky will check your Website and invite you aboard as the house Red. The whole world will be rocked from TriBeCa to Claremont Ave. Go for it! Shit. Navasky should come to me hat in hands to request permission to contribute to www.panix.com/~marxism.html, not the other way around. But what about the free T-shirt, shopping bag and coffee mug? Anyway, what revelation could he bring to your site? There is no escape from comparative advantage. valis
[PEN-L:874] RE: Gore v. Bush?
Would it be right to say that the Democrats have actually done better out of these elections than they might have expected before the Lewinsky story broke? Could be. Though they had some things to look forward to sans Lewinsky. The R's had overreached in policy areas and had been internally divided (witness the tax cut debacle). It's possible the Dems could beat up the R's on issues. If so, does it mean that all those loud fundamentalist bible-belters are more concerned with (apparently) thriving economic numbers than with adultery and lying? Evidently they didn't turn out as much, or there aren't enough of them. Or did more Democrat voters turn out than usual? Yes, particularly minorities and trade unionists. And, given the GOP still has the numbers, will it go ahead with the impeachment process now? Strikes me the ghastly Gingrich is stuffed either way now. They will shut it down as fast as they can. Newt is cold potatoes, though he may offer up Armey as the notional sacrifice. The tasty part is that a section of the right is so rabid they will propel the 'impeachment process' forward to some extent, and they will also disproportionately influence the Republican presidential primaries, abetting the party's stagnating political fortunes. My bet: the GOP comes over all 'moderate', the 'Contract with America' goes the way of all turds, 'Bushism' tries hard to become a buzz-word, and the last vestiges of distinction between Dems and Reps dissolve as two PR companies launch their respective wooden plutocratic commodities at us, hoping brand differentation can survive the clearly identical contents. There will be a huge fight before the GOP goes moderate. The right was p.o.'ed as it was and believes they lost because they weren't right enough. The Texas Son o' Bush is an obvious unifying factor, but it's not clear that unification will be possible. I agree that if the moderates win it will be harder than presently to see a difference between the parties. On the other hand, if the right frontier of debate moves to the center, the left might move in the opposite direction. The dominant theme in the Dem victories seemed to be a purported absence of malice towards minorities and women. Class was invisible. Neo-liberal economics are an obvious potential outcome. Funny thing is, class seemed to play more in some of the Southern Dem victories, and in some so-called 'right-wing' democratic campaigns. The model is the outgoing Georgia governor Zell Miller, who was 'tough on crime' but used lottery proceeds to subsidize higher education for lower-income students. MBS
[PEN-L:870] BLS Daily Report
This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
-- =_NextPart_000_01BE0811.A9CA7250
BLS DAILY REPORT, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1998
__Consumer spending greatly exceeded income growth in September,
triggering a negative personal savings rate for the first time in almost
40 years, but analysts caution against reading too much into the
development. The personal income of Americans increased a modest 0.2
percent in September, after gaining 0.4 percent in each of the previous
two months, the Commerce Department reports. ... (Daily Labor Report,
page D-1; New York Times, page C2).
__Americans spent more money buying goods and services than they
received in after-tax income in September, resulting in a negative
national personal savings rate for the first time since 1959, when the
monthly figures were first published. The savings rate, which measures
the share of disposable personal income left after people make their
purchases, fell into negative territory as such spending increased a
robust 0.5 percent and personal income rose by a much weaker 0.2
percent. Much of the slowdown in income growth was the result of
September's small gain in new jobs and a cutback in the number of hours
worked. ... (Washington Post, page E1).
__Wages and incomes are still making gains, although not as fast as in
recent months. But even as consumers receive salary boosts, they are
still spending a large portion of their incomes. ... (Wall Street
Journal, page A2).
__The National Association of Purchasing Management said that its
monthly survey showed that manufacturing activity slowed last month for
the fifth month in a row. ... Manufacturing companies have been hard
hit by the decline in U.S. exports that began when several Asia nations
got into serious economic and financial difficulty more than a year ago.
Last month, the index for export orders fell to 42 from 45.8, an
indication that exports probably will continue to decline in coming
months, another reason to expect slower economic growth ahead, analysts
said. Purchasing managers say that the prices their companies are
paying for materials and components continue to fall rapidly. ...
(Washington Post, page E1).
__The National Association of Purchasing Management's factory index fell
to 48.3 in October, from 49.4 in September - the lowest reading since
47.3 in March 1996. The index has hovered just below 50 since June, a
sign of a decline in manufacturing and slower economic growth over all.
But while manufacturing is slowing, builders are still reporting
growth. Construction spending rose in September, after showing no
change in August, Commerce Department figures showed. Construction,
especially of single-family homes, had been a mainstay of the economy
all year. ... (New York Times, page C2).
__In another sign that the U.S. economy may be slowing, manufacturing
activity continued to contract in October. The slowing in manufacturing
activity has been brought on by foreign financial crisis. That economic
turmoil has resulted in weak demand for U.S. exports and more intense
competition as foreign imports flood many U.S. markets. ... (Wall
Street Journal, page A2).
Corporate profit growth stumbled in the three months that ended in
September, producing the first year-to-year drop since the nation was
clawing its way out of the recession in 1991. Economists said companies
were squeezed by higher labor costs at home, financial weakness around
the globe, and an environment that makes it difficult to raise prices.
Those and other factors combined to push operating profits for the
nation's largest companies more than 3 percent below last year's third
quarter, according to First Call Corp., a Boston firm that tracks
analysts' forecasts and actual earnings reports. ... (Washington Post,
page E1).
About 71 percent of all employers this year will grant paid holidays for
Thanksgiving and the day after, roughly the same as last year (68
percent), says the Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a Washington
publishing house. Factory workers and others in manufacturing are the
most likely to receive the two-day holiday; hospital, bank, and retail
workers are among the least likely ("Work Week," Wall Street Journal,
page A1).
-- =_NextPart_000_01BE0811.A9CA7250
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[PEN-L:881] RE: Re: RE: Gore v. Bush?
Funny thing is, class seemed to play more in some of the Southern Dem victories . . . According to my correspondent in Auburn, Ala, proposing using a lottery for higher ed bucks really helped the Demo (forget his name) to win there over the egregious theocrat Fob James. It seems if you dangle college tuition in front of even the most devout bible thumpers, they take the money and run. The funny thing is that James had a tough primary and if Blount had won the primary the Repups probably would have won the election. James had just gotten too weird and scary for many of the voters. I would put a much more benign construction on these two cases, namely that somewhere inside the Southern white working class, Bible-thumper or otherwise, is a constituency susceptible to left economic populism, and the emergence of such a tendency would radically transform U.S. (and world) politics. To appeal, however, such a populism would have to forswear a number of currently fashionable liberal and left hobby-horses. MBS
[PEN-L:885] Re: Open Letter to the Nation magazine
At 04:05 PM 11/4/98 -0400 Victor Navasky wrote: Dear LP: Thanks for your past support and your report on why you have "stopped" supporting The Nation. 1) My assumption is that the editorial writer was using the term "statesman" in a generic rather than an honorific sense; perhaps we shd have used another term, but given the repeated and harsh Nation critiques of Clinton and Clintonism over the years, if that's your beef, I think you should resubscribe. Unless as the result of recent traumas he has reformed his DLC ways, I suspect you won't be disappointed. I'm sorry, Victor. This does not hold water. The editorial also states that Clinton has "shown himself to be a skilled and effective leader on foreign policy." This is news to me. The Clinton presidency has not departed in any substantial way from what has preceded it. It is about coercing the Palestinians to live in bantus, shoring up the Colombian and Mexican ruling elites in their war against campesinos, backing Yeltsin to the hilt, pushing for NAFTA and GATT, etc. Just because he is a Democrat, this does not mean that he is one of us. Well, maybe that depends on how you define "us". And, yes, you have been harsh with Clinton in the same way that American Spectator was harsh with Bush. When Bush veered slightly to the left, the American Spectator let him have it. You have the same kind of relationship with Clinton. 2) Re Alterman: He couldn't write it for The New Republic since his devastating critiques of that mag in this mag have, one assumes, made him persona non grata. I guess you didn't understand me. It is not his politics, but his snotty attitude. Ex-NY Times editor John Hess is somebody whose integrity I value highly. I got to know him through his contacts with the Central American solidarity movement. When Alterman, who seems barely old enough to shave, tells Hess, who appears to be in his 80s, that he writes "factually challenged" articles, I cringe. It is the same sophomoric voice that predominates in the New Republic. 3) Alex is nobody's sop, but I still can't make the connection -- you read something by AC which offended you in the New York Press and therefore you have stopped buying The Nation which now runs an every other weekly Cockburn page? I don't get it. It's really quite simple. Cockburn is the house radical at the Nation. I was getting fed up with his Nation articles--including that ridiculous article celebrating hunting--but the straw that broke the camel's back appeared elsewhere. NY Press is free, but the Nation costs me $52 per year. If Cockburn is supposed to be a concession to us radicals, then I'd prefer to read his crap in the NY Press, where at least it is free. Louis Proyect (http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)
[PEN-L:891] www.thenation.com/~louscorner.html
I suspect that if you took a survey of your readership, you would find many more Marxists than you would have anticipated. You simply can not take us for granted. The Democratic Party does this with blacks, Latinos, gays and women. Marxism is a different sort of thing. It is a deeply rooted set of ideas that takes enormous will-power to uphold in a society like this. It is actually a tribute to the kind of magazine that the Nation was in the past that so many of us were loyal to it. I'm not sure the conclusion of this dialogue takes clairvoyance, Louis. Navasky will check your Website and invite you aboard as the house Red. The whole world will be rocked from TriBeCa to Claremont Ave. Go for it! valis
[PEN-L:895] Re: Re: overcapacity - 'Ford chief predicts doom'
At 02:19 PM 11/4/98 -0500, you wrote: Ford chief predicts doom - this font is so small that I read it as "Ford thief." Jim, nobody steals Fords. Accords, Lexus, BMW, not Fords. Gene Coyle
[PEN-L:897] Re: RE: Re: overcapacity - 'Ford chief predicts doom'
Trotman was probably Greider's source for a similar statement in his One World The Asian crisis may allow some companies to dismantle some of their capacity, but I still see the inablity to absorb all the capacity as a major threat to industrial capital. While financial capital's thirst for anti inflationary actions has been temporarily quelled with the Asian crisis, we still have this ongoing split in capital's ranks. Doug Henwood (correctly) insists that the same firms are often both financial and industrial, but this dualism really amounts to a schizophrenia. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:871] Open Letter to the Nation magazine
Since this is being circulated on the Internet, where there are many non-USA participants, a word or two about the Nation would be helpful. The Nation was established in 1865 by a group of abolitionists and is the authoritative voice of left-liberalism in the US. During the 1930s and 40s, it was sympathetic to the views of the CPUSA and has often included Marxist contributors and editors. Doug Henwood, for example, is on the editorial board. Long-time editor Victor Navasky was being interviewed on public television's Open Mind a month or so ago and was explaining why long-term subscribers were important to the magazine. When you consider that a year's subscription to the weekly costs $52, somebody who has been subscribing for five years, let's say, has put up over $250 for the production costs of the magazine, which actually runs a deficit on a regular basis (no tobacco ads, etc.). Since I have been reading the magazine every week since early 1980 either on the newsstand or through subscription as is currently the case, this qualifies me as a long-term subscriber. In addition, I was responsible for first placing weekly ads in the Nation for my organization Tecnica over a 3 year stretch in the 1980s. Each ad cost $50 as I recall. At 50 issues or so a year, this represented $7500 in revenue, if my math is correct. Like many people who began reading the Nation in the early 1980s, I was a socialist who had broken with sectarianism. Peter Camejo, a good friend of mine who had been thrown out of the SWP for questioning sectarianism, turned me on to the Nation. Many of the people he had been networking with at the time were contributing to the Nation on Central American politics, including George Black. The Nation remained important to Camejo even after he became more interested in the securities business than in changing society. When his company Progressive Assets Management hit the big time, he took out a full page ad in the nation including his oversized picture. He wore a "swallow the canary" grin on his face, since he wanted to show Trotskyists and ex-Trotskyists how he had "made it." I was underwhelmed. During the Reagan and Bush years, the Nation was an important source of anti-government analysis. This overlapped with the left-liberal perspective of the wing of the Democratic Party that had been marginalized. It seemed that the most powerful anti-Republican prose was coming from sources with a Marxist background, so I read those issues with great satisfaction and was happy to be a subscriber. Once Clinton was elected, everything changed. The magazine was transformed into a critical supporter of the government in power. Since most Marxists have no use for the Clinton-Gore team, nearly every issue has contained something that can prove offensive. For example, the lead editorial in the current issue (Nov. 16) states that "Domestically, Clinton's achievement as statesman will probably not make much difference in the coming midterm elections or with regard to impeachment hearings in the fall." STATESMAN? Are you people out of your minds? Clinton is as much of a "statesman" as Bush was. The only reason that US foreign policy has not been as violently adventuristic as the previous administration's is that most radical governments have already been beaten into submission. With the collapse of the USSR, the US has not seen the need to use gunboat diplomacy on such a promiscuous basis. But this is not "statesmanship", just "realpolitic". Beyond that, there are some other things that I find completely alienating such as your choice of Eric Alterman as regular columnist. This twerp is no different than the sort of wet-behind-the-ears Harvard graduate who ends up working for Marty Peretz at the New Republic. His latest column takes a swipe at the magazine for publishing John Hess's "dishonest" attack on Paul Berman. For god's sake, we get 10,000 of Alterman's words to everyone of somebody like Hess's, so what is this creep complaining about? (Hess had taken Berman to task for falsifying Spanish Civil War history. My own experience with Berman on the Nicaraguan civil war of the 1980s convinced me that he wouldn't be able to tell the truth about such conflicts if his life depended on it.) Also, John Leonard has turned your book review section into a swamp that mirrors his own post-modernist agenda. We don't need the Nation to find out about some obscure novel that describes the journey of a neurotic novelist into some Oedipal trauma. There's dozens of literary journals that do this and they don't include the obnoxious name-dropping characteristic of Mr. Leonard's prose "style". Oddly enough, I finally decided to stop purchasing the Nation when a particularly boneheaded article by Alex Cockburn showed up in the NY Press recently. As you may or may not be aware, this article attacked Ward Churchill for lamenting the genocide of the American Indian. Alex told him to "get over it" because gambling casinos were
[PEN-L:882] Re: crisis is over?
Jim Devine wrote, Doug will point out (correctly) that there's a difference between the economy slowing (or going into a recession) and a crisis There's also a difference between normal stability and being unusually vulnerable to crisis. It doesn't snow every day in winter, either, but it's a good sight more likely to snow in winter than in summer. We don't say, "It's not snowing today so winter must be over." Either way, we should expect consumption to slow in the future, since the stock market is in the doldrums and as consumers adjust their plans to reality. The reason for the negative savings is less important than the fact that it suggests an unsustainable level of consumer spending. Either income has to go up (unlikely, considering falling corporate profits) spending has to go down (more likely) or savings will continue to be negative (which could have all kinds of interesting implications for money, prices and credit). Regards, Tom Walker ^^^ #408 1035 Pacific St. Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4G7 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (604) 669-3286 ^^^ The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
[PEN-L:886] Re: RE: Re: RE: Gore v. Bush?
On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, Max Sawicky wrote: I would put a much more benign construction on these two cases, namely that somewhere inside the Southern white working class, Bible-thumper or otherwise, is a constituency susceptible to left economic populism, and the emergence of such a tendency would radically transform U.S. (and world) politics. I don't disagree with this, in principle, I just see precious little evidence of it. A quick look back at history to the early part of this century shows that Knights of Labor, IWW, and Socialists had a meaningful presence in Southern / Western states. Even pseudo-populist Huey Long had better ideas that the most liberal Democrat does these days. To appeal, however, such a populism would have to forswear a number of currently fashionable liberal and left hobby-horses. Which ones? MBS -- Joseph Noonan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:888] Re: overcapacity - 'Ford chief predicts doom'
At 02:19 PM 11/4/98 -0500, you wrote: Ford chief predicts doom - this font is so small that I read it as "Ford thief." Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
THE HIDDEN HOLOCAUST AGAINST THE POOR
THE HIDDEN HOLOCAUST AGAINST THE POOR by Eric Sommer The advent of the World Crisis, with its' disturbing mix of economic, ecological, and technical Y2000bug elements, , brings new importance to the hidden holocaust against the poor which has been taking place for some time on a world-wide and accelerating scale. Over the past few decades massive numbers of middle class, working class, and - in the Third World - peasant people have been driven into poverty, where they have been increasingly threatened with annihilation. To see the truth of these statements, we need only look about us. In the U.S., the richest country in the world, lower middle class and working class standards of living have been falling for 20 years and now one or two million - nobody seems to know the exact number - poor people have actually been made homeless. The life-span for Russian men has dropped since the fall of the Soviet Union, along with a radical increase in poverty, from 75 or so years to 59 years. Turning to the Third World, the picure is replete with statistics such as 2,000,000 homeless children in brazil, with 250,000 of them in the city of Sao Paulo alone. Even before the current crisis there were hundreds of thousands of child prostitutes in southern Asia; now, under the impact of economic desperation, the numbers are increasing still further. Similar facts and figures, confirming a holocaust of unprecedented proportions against the poor, including massive former members of the middle and working classes who have been driven into poverty, could be adduced for many other areas of the world. One face of this new holocaust against the poor is that - like the original Nazi holocaust - it includes a virulent hate campaign. The media, government, and right-wing think tanks have in recent years sponsored a sweeping propaganda attack against impoverished - and especially unemployed - people. This campaign has sought to drill into the public consciousness the notion that poor people are `shiftless', that they are infected with a `culture of poverty' or `culture of dependency', that they are the `reason for high taxes', that they are `deadbeats and criminals' and so forth. One consequence of this campaign has been to scapegoat poor people; they are blamed for economic problems which actually have nothing to do with them. Declining working class living standards, and growing social misery and economic insecurity, stem in reality from the current workings of the global economy, from globalized competition, from the application of new informational and robotic technologies, and from the extraction of super- profits from the rest of the population by the upper 20% of society. But government and media, using ideas spun in right-wing think tanks (such as re labeling poverty as `dependency'), have sought to re-direct public frustration towards the poor, with their supposed responsibility for high taxes and other social difficulties. This demonizing and de-humanizing of the image of the poor has, moreover, served to harden public sentiment, so that the current massive suffering - and mass deaths - of poor people can be made acceptable. The reality of this new holocaust against poor people is, to some extent, obscured by its outward differences from the original one. In the original holocaust, for example, ordinary members of society who happened to be Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, communists, or other targeted categories found themselves progressively publicly vilified, singled out for repressive legislation, rounded up, worked to death, and then gassed. In the current holocaust, growing numbers of ordinary people in the middle and working classes, and in the peasant class in the third world, find themselves `inexplicably' cast down among the working and non-working poor, where they become `the new Jews' of their society, and where life becomes a daily struggle for adequate nutrition, housing, and dignity. Another difference which hides the similarities between the two holocausts is the nature of the concentration camps which are used. The victims of the original holocaust were interned in slave labour camps at places like Belsen and Auschwitz. The concentration camp of the new holocaust is the street, where the ever-growing numbers of homeless must try to live, sleep, and care for themselves. For those who still have homes, the new concentration camps are the ever-worsening poverty ghettos and substandard life-support systems and housing of the inner cities and shanty-towns. Finally, there is the difference in the methods of execution. Unlike the original holocaust, the poor are not - for the most part - visibly murdered by the state or the upper classes. Under a smoke screen of rhetoric about the `necessary working of the economy' and `ending dependency' and `reliance on market forces', we are told we must simply `let them go' to their fate, once they have been deprived
[PEN-L:872] RE: RE: family/religion/economics
What in tarnation is "the myth of the state"? MBS
[PEN-L:884] Re: family
Max: In the same vein, it's not simply about economic provision, but about the values one would impart to children and the ethic of responsibility (both individual and communal). In a less positive vein, it's implicitly about breeding for the nation. On the whole, the pro-family advantage remains something that the left needs to appropriate. ricardo: I would agree, Jim words the family as if it were a matter of economics, so he misses the crucial defining element, which is the emotional attachment between parent and children. The family is not something that can be "appropriated" by either the left of the right, since the bond between mother (and father) and infant is *basic* to our very sense of self. It is this bond which sets the tone for other relations later in life. Insects and reptiles have not need for attachment. It all starts with mammals and gains in importance with primates because they have a much longer period of dependency on the mother. (Besides, if we mean political "appropriation", the left has a long history in this area, of which the writings of the Frankfurt school on "authority and the family" are quite important.) Left-wing economists who are critical of "economic man" should know that one of the most effective challenges against this "man" is the obvious, primary ways in which our very self is initially formed within the family. Neoclassical theory conceives human relations as interactions between pre-formed selves; selves who are rational maximizers *before* they interact with any human being. Selves who are already formed before any intersubjective action. But Sstudies have shown how crucial family socialization is to the whole formation of the human personality. I would even agree with George Herbert Mead that our very own sense of self, our self-awarenes and self-image, *develops* only through interaction, and that family interaction is the key agent in this. What we think of ourselves is what we think others think of us, beginning with our parents, moving on to the schools, our peers, and society at large. So, it is totally wrong to think the family is a right wing issue. After all, what else is feminism? ricardo
