> Date sent: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 13:02:32 -0800 (PST) > Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Doug Henwood) > Subject: [PEN-L:8453] Re: Is this a consensus? > At 12:10 PM 2/4/97, D Shniad wrote: > > >"Karl Marx argued that capitalism needs a 'reserve army' of unemployed > >labor to restrain wage demands and safeguard profits. Most economic > >policy makers still think the same way, but recent experience in the U.S. > >and Britain suggests the army might need fewer troops than it used to." > > > > -- Robert Chote, economics editor for the Financial Times, > > quoted in the Financial Post, February 1, 1997 > > Yes, I'd say this is the ruling class consensus now. > > Doug > > -- > > Doug Henwood > Left Business Observer > 250 W 85 St > New York NY 10024-3217 USA > +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax > email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html> > If we are going to have an Industrial Reserve Army (of unemployed) why not institute a draft to share the burdens (no deferrments for Divinity studies etc.)? We could have uniforms, ranks etc. Imagine, some yuppie from an Ivy League School--let's call him Biff or Preston Smythe III--get's drafted. Now he is told he has to give up his Beamer and move into a cold-water flat and live on food stamps--for a limited time only as welfare will dull his initiative. No more scoring at the old single's bar when he, in response to the usual question (before what's your sign or are you carrying any nasty diseases?) "what do you do?", he has to answer I'm unemployed. Then he has to give up his old credit cards and try applying for new ones. The possibilities are endless. Jim Craven *------------------------------------------------------------------* * James Craven * "Reason is a narrow system swollen * * Dept of Economics * into an ideology. * * Clark College * * * 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. * With time and power it has become a * * Vancouver, Wa. 98663 * dogma, devoid of direction and * * (360) 992-2283 * disguised as disinterested inquiry. * * [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * Like most religions, reason presents* * * itself as the solution to the * * * problems it has created." * * * * * * (John Ralston Saul in "Voltaire's * * * Bastards") * * MY EMPLOYER HAS NO ASSOCIATION WITH MY PRIVATE/PROTECTED OPINION *
