I had written: >>This neoclassical analysis [treating capitalist production
as a matter of the production of a collective good], BTW, is not totally
and utterly wrong: if one takes competition for granted and looks at
matters simply from the perspective of one company, one might see the
workers and management has having a shared community of interests. Until,
at least, management shuts down the quality circles and moves the plant to
Mexico... The "truth" of the collective goods analysis of capitalist
production is also based on a static perspective, something that infects
all or almost all neoclassicals. <<
Ken Hanly COMMENTs:> I don't see this. If co-operation within a competitive
system increased the size of the company pie this would certainly be a
potential pareto improvement but that does not show there is a community of
interests at all. Capital still wants to maximise its share of the pie and
workers may get even less pie in absolute terms let alone relative terms.
The concept of a shared community of interests is just a part of ideology
without being a part of the theoretical (and also ideological) apparatus of
neoclassical analysis. Indeed what seems to be happening is that labor is
less able to capture benefits produced by greater productivity etc.
Propogandists cite the bigger pie as a reason for co-operation what why
should I help the virtuous capitalist little red hen bake a bigger pie when
all I get is fewer crumbs?...<
I wasn't agreeing with the n.c. analysis as much as saying that it made
sense in a very limited context, from a very partial perspective. GM tells
its workers that if "we all fight together against Toyota, there will be
bonuses (boni?) for all." From a less partial perspective, this appeal to
short-term individual interests is simply a ploy in a battle between
divergent long-term class interests. Workers are pushed to focus on
short-term individual interests by the existence of unemployment and
management systems that divide and conquer.
that's all for today...
in pen-l solidarity,
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://clawww.lmu.edu/1997F/ECON/jdevine.html
"The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They're too damned greedy."
-- Herbert Hoover
