Thanks to Hans, James and Michael for making this better. . . .errors, my own. Best, Brian
CounterPunch Weekend Edition November 16-18, 2012 If Marx’s Math is Fundamental, Why Do So Few Teach It? by BRIAN MCKENNA “Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.” Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1, (1867:233) “Fuzzy math?” Obama accused Romney with it. Neither man touched on the most important math in America. It’s rarely taught. And, yes, it involves vampires … and jobs. I’ve had 42 jobs in this life so far. The first was at age 6, in 1962, when I hauled groceries in my red wagon up a hill for elderly ladies from an A&P supermarket in Philadelphia. The women didn’t own cars. I’d get a quarter if I was lucky, maybe a glass of iced tea. $0.00 an Hour I’ve had several fast food jobs. I’ll never forget my first. I was 19 and I flipped burgers at Gino’s (a competitor of McDonald’s) in 1975 in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I was earning money for college. Ginos advertised “flexible hours” to cater to college student’s busy needs. I signed on at $1.90 an hour, plus one free hamburger per shift. One day I was called in at the last minute for an evening shift of four hours. Not owning a car, I took public transportation to the place, about 4 miles away, for the 4:00 shift. It started to rain. When I arrived, soaking wet at 4:00, I was told, ‘we don’t need you anymore tonight, Brian. “But it took an hour to get here and I want to work. Please let me do something.” “Can’t you see?” the manager pointed out the window, “it’s raining out, hard, and no one is coming into Ginos. We don’t need you. Can you work a shift on Saturday at 11:00 to 2:00?” “Can I at least have my hamburger?” “But you didn’t work!” he said. I got home around 6 PM. Total time spent from home to home again: 3 hours. Total wages earned: $0.00. This was an education for me. I thought, why aren’t we paid for the time we travel to work, and for the time getting ready for work? Why do we have no real power at work? And how did they decide on the $1.90 price per hour in the first place? This led to a series of many more critical questions, over time, about commodity production and the reproduction of the laborer, about profits and people, about math, and about how we can and must resist. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/16/if-marxs-math-is-fundamental-why-do-so-few-teach-it/ If Marx’s Math is Fundamental, Why Do So Few Teach It? by BRIAN MCKENNA “Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.” Karl Marx, Capital, Volume 1, (1867:233) “Fuzzy math?” Obama accused Romney with it. Neither man touched on the most important math in America. It’s rarely taught. And, yes, it involves vampires … and jobs. I’ve had 42 jobs in this life so far. The first was at age 6, in 1962, when I hauled groceries in my red wagon up a hill for elderly ladies from an A&P supermarket in Philadelphia. The women didn’t own cars. I’d get a quarter if I was lucky, maybe a glass of iced tea. $0.00 an Hour I’ve had several fast food jobs. I’ll never forget my first. I was 19 and I flipped burgers at Gino’s (a competitor of McDonald’s) in 1975 in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I was earning money for college. Ginos advertised “flexible hours” to cater to college student’s busy needs. I signed on at $1.90 an hour, plus one free hamburger per shift. One day I was called in at the last minute for an evening shift of four hours. Not owning a car, I took public transportation to the place, about 4 miles away, for the 4:00 shift. It started to rain. When I arrived, soaking wet at 4:00, I was told, ‘we don’t need you anymore tonight, Brian. “But it took an hour to get here and I want to work. Please let me do something.” “Can’t you see?” the manager pointed out the window, “it’s raining out, hard, and no one is coming into Ginos. We don’t need you. Can you work a shift on Saturday at 11:00 to 2:00?” “Can I at least have my hamburger?” “But you didn’t work!” he said. I got home around 6 PM. Total time spent from home to home again: 3 hours. Total wages earned: $0.00. This was an education for me. I thought, why aren’t we paid for the time we travel to work, and for the time getting ready for work? Why do we have no real power at work? And how did they decide on the $1.90 price per hour in the first place? This led to a series of many more critical questions, over time, about commodity production and the reproduction of the laborer, about profits and people, about math, and about how we can and must resist. full: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/16/if-marxs-math-is-fundamental-why-do-so-few-teach-it/
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