Marty, the strange perspective that you were talking about was that I was imagining what the Chinese leadership was trying to do in order to develop a capitalist country -- certainly not a classless one. In the short run, this strategy might have some benefits for workers -- especially in the sense of shortening the working day.
Within this context, the interests of the workers and the leadership may have something in common, which I find interesting. Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Marty Hart-Landsberg Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 4:32 PM To: Progressive Economics Subject: Re: [Pen-l] more on China Michael, this seems like a strange perspective. Why dont you try imagining that you are a worker and thinking about the kind of economic transformation that you would want and how you would want to achieve it--what kind of policies would be helpful and why--what is the government proposing and why, etc. You talk about China as a classless entity rather than a country with a class system. I am sure that US capital would like to restart the growth engines in the US while maintaining labor discipline as well. At the same time, they would probably choose maintaining labor discipline over growth if it came down to it. Look at how little change in economic structure we have seen in the wake of the great recession and with a possible double dip on the horizon. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
