On 11/16/12 9:48 AM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Try this as a provisional account of what has happened and is happening. > > The period from FDR through Nixon (as well as the "social democratic" gains > in Europe) was a fluke in capitalism. Now there is a return to the norm. > "The Great Recession," then, is a misnomer: What we have is The Great > Transition. And see the final chapter of Wages, Price and Profit. > > Carrol >
This is exactly right. That is why all the expectations about "recovery" are so ill-placed. Implicit is the notion that things can return to what they were in the late 50s when job security, a rising wage, affordable health insurance and college educations, etc. were the norm. The scary truth is that post-war prosperity was grounded in the war itself as capitalism followed a scorched earth policy that paved the way for the new expansion based on technologies that were developed during the war (aluminum, plastics, telecommunications, micro-circuitry, etc.) Louis ***************************** FYI from my FB page today: Wages and Benefits: Real Wages (1964-2004) REAL WAGES 1964-2004 Average Weekly Earnings (in 1982 constant dollars) For all private nonfarm workers Year Real $ Change 1964 302.52 1965 310.46 2.62% 1966 312.83 0.76% 1967 311.30 -0.49% 1968 315.37 1.31% 1969 316.93 0.49% 1970 312.94 -1.26% 1971 318.05 1.63% 1972 331.59 4.26% 1973 331.39 -0.06% 1974 314.94 -4.96% 1975 305.16 -3.11% 1976 309.61 1.46% 1977 310.99 0.45% 1978 310.41 -0.19% 1979 298.87 -3.72% 1980 281.27 -5.89% 1981 277.35 -1.39% 1982 272.74 -1.66% 1983 277.50 1.75% 1984 279.22 0.62% 1985 276.23 -1.07% 1986 276.11 -0.04% 1987 272.88 -1.17% 1988 270.32 -0.94% 1989 267.27 -1.13% 1990 262.43 -1.81% 1991 258.34 -1.56% 1992 257.95 -0.15% 1993 258.12 0.07% 1994 259.97 0.72% 1995 258.43 -0.59% 1996 259.58 0.44% 1997 265.22 2.17% 1998 271.87 2.51% 1999 274.64 1.02% 2000 275.62 0.36% 2001 275.38 -0.09% 2002 278.91 1.28% 2003 279.94 0.37% 2004 277.57 -0.84% Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Real wages flat or going down yet, in the USA, real productivity (output per worker) has gone up, up, up! And our ruling class keeps yammering on about how WE, the producers of wealth must endure cuts to our standard of living to pay off DEBT! Debt to whom? To which class do the producers of all wealth not found in natural resources owe a debt? Wake up workers or y'all through.http://www.frbsf.org/csip/data/charts/chart17b.cfm *************************************************** Abolish the wage system...isn't that what Marx urged workers to inscribe on their banners back in 1865? Was he being unrealistic? Were the latter-day saints of the Second and Third Internationals right about boring from within and attempting to reform the capitalist system--to provide 'leadership'? I'm bored with reformists and their imaginary political instructions to the ruling class for saving the wage system. Carry on, Mike B) *********************************************************************** Wobbly Times http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
