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First, comrade Darryl, the new generation of vehicles will most definitely not include fuel cells as that technology is nowhere near ready for mass application. Secondly, Boeing, with the agreement of its unions, actually executed a system similar to what you describe as the "modular" system GM proposed for auto production. The modular systems was supposed to reduce Boeing's costs, particularly costs of fixed assets, by essentially sub-contracting construction of various parts of the aircraft, the 787 'Dreamliner', to enterprises around the world, some subsidiaries of Boeing, some not. Hasn't worked out real well for Boeing, with the aircraft now 2 years behind schedule, with structural flaws discovered in some of the major components, like the fuselage section that connects to the wings-- I'd call that major, and now cancellations and deferments of orders beginning to trickle in. Thirdly, nope, the conflict between means and relations of production is not precisely because the industrial workforce grows in absolute terms. The conflict between means and relations is between the accumulation of capital as a profit-yielding mode, the expansion of value based on maintaining the means of production as private property in order to aggrandize surplus value, and the limits to the accumulation of capital, and expansion of value, based on that very same aggrandizement of surplus value. It's the relation between the capital components, variable and constant, that ignites, precipitates, drives the conflict between means and relations of production....that relation, and thus the conflict is maintained by capital, is essential to capital during the expansion and contraction of the numbers of workers. And being essential to capital, being its manifest identity, this conflict becomes capital's manifest destiny-- to reproduce the impulse to revolution, the concrete immanence of revolution and overturn of that relation of production. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> > Comment > > Perhaps, in January 2002 this very point was talked about on Pen-L. Ford > Motors Company held a simulcast for its employees outlining the prospects > of > the future. At that time, their spokesperson outline a coming period > called > "profitless prosperity." Today profitless prosperity can be understood in > light of the past eight years. Profits derived from financial > transactions > rather than the difference between the cost and sell of an automobile. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
