> Tom Batsis wrote: > Doug, do you think thatincreased "competitiveness" is responsible > for declining standards of > > living?< > From: Michael Perelman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Yes. Of course, when profits start to fall, business takes it out on the > workers. That is the underlying mechanism. > > I have discussed this matter in The Pathology of the > U.S. Economy and in The End of Economics. ........... I am really curious about the arguments in your books, Michael! (hope we have them in our library...) The main idea is quite convincing and also 'intuitive' (most of my 'intuition' was educated with Marx' readings... :-) ) Indeed, it looks like in the Manifest: increasing capitalist competition => declining rates of profits => squeezing workers' income .. => leading to revolution. That all looked quite 'exciting', and we seem to be still sympathetic with the idea... However, I am still puzzled: Increasing competition among capitalists has taken 'a different track': the internasionalisation of capital, the creation of multinational monopolies, the rising of financial markets and speculation, leading also to 'concentration over concentration', in the form of the huge financial-entrepreneurial conglomerates and cartels that we know now, etc... That is, in one phrase: increasing competition has led to increasing concentration ... On the other hand, the same process has apparently being accompanied by a deterioration of real income of (at least) the lower quintiles of population at a world scale (including the North). That is, increasing competition has *indeed* led to a deterioration of standards of living, but *through a still sharper concentration*. I would rahter prefer to find some hole in my argument above, than to give up to the idea of a 'revolution'. Could you give us a 'hint', Michael, at least until we get hold of your books?? Thanks, Alex Alex Izurieta E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Institute of Social Studies P.O. Box 29776 2502 LT The Hague Tel. 31-70-4260480 Fax. 31-70-4260755
