I forgot to mention unemployment. N&B's discussion of the importance of unemployment to capitalist power and capital accumulation is very important. Unemployment isn't just some regretable but unavoidable side-effect of economic activity -- it's precisely what makes "employment" enslaving.
In this connection, I would like to mention Virno's thesis number 4 that in the current epoch, "every qualitative difference between labor time and non-labor time falls short... It could be said that: unemployment is non-remunerated labor and labor, in turn, is remunerated unemployment." Although this may superficially sound like recycled Situationist word play, it takes on analytical force when we understand unemployment as undergirding capitalist power. Or consider the unintentional admission of the following anti-trade union diatribe from 1901 London Times: "It was hoped to 'absorb' all the unemployed in course of time... The motive of this aspiration, however, was not one of philanthropy pure and simple. When all the unemployed had been absorbed the workers would have the employers entirely at their mercy, and would be able to command such wages and such terms as they might think fit." The Sandwichman ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
