Sorry about this, but this is the message I intended to send. Somehow a draft version got out first.
Ed > Just for purposes of discussion- can we try to think 'outside the box' of > capitalism as it exists today, especially in the U.S. > > Would most of you agree :-) (I don't know the symbol for tongue-in-cheek) > that, with all due respect to Harry, it might be possibleto control > capitalism so that it works for the good of the general public, including > the capitalists? No, they would not be able to make their obscene profits > and salaries; but could there be incentives such that creativity would be > encouraged, especially since the risks would be reduced? > > Selma > Selma, you're getting very close to what the Soviet Union was like. It wasn't really communism, it was state capitalism that was supposed to benefit everyone, but that in actual fact benefited some far more than others. The Soviet Union started out as an ideal egalitarian state, but soon demonstrated something that may be inherent in human nature, that people will want to exercise control and will divide themselves into classes to do so. Personally, I don't think there is any possibility of achieving anything like benign, good for all, capitalism. An individual company can perhaps operate for a time without too much internal conflict by making its employees its major shareholders (United Airlines?), but, typically, that company has to operate in a competitive market that is anything but benign and friendly. It may have to cut costs and lay people off, just as privately held firms do. One has to see society divided into interest groups. What is good for capitalists is not necessarily good for labour and v.v. IMHO, the only real hope labour has is maintaining its bargaining power, but that has become difficult because labour has changed and is no longer clearly definable. Auto workers may still be "labour" (and well paid labour), but what about clerical or administrative workers in the financial sector? And what about techies? They probably see themselves as aspiring Bill Gates's, or at least they probably did until the dot.com crash. What people seem to have lost is a sense of common purpose and an understanding of which side of the bargaining table they're on. Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax (613) 728 9382 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
