[PEN-L:9231] Re: Thanks to all and a question
Let me ask a simple economic question: what do you think the weakest link in the U.S. economy is today? labor resistance, ponzi-like debt, international instability, an environmental crunch [the oil companies are threatening big time price increases because their refineries keep exploding unless they are allowed to sell more polluting blends of gasoline in California], a profit squeeze, speculative excess? I'd say the fundamental problem is growth of consumer demand based on increasing indebtedness (and higher-than-high hopes), investment growth based on a high -- but unstable -- profit rate, and growth of the economy as a whole based on a growing current-account deficit (which entails rising external debt). Each of these create imbalances which will squelch future growth and then block recovery. It might happen (who knows?) that the US growth will pull up the rest of the world, but I doubt it (given the way in which the poor countries are competing to offer low wages, tax breaks, etc.) In the meantime, international stagnation drags down the US, or as the US gets further and further out of step, encourages a sudden drop back into line with the rest of the world. The actual trigger that pops the economy's baloon (to mix metaphors a little) might be the transitory rise in real wages, a financial crisis, Y2K, current stagnation/deflation in China, With a fundamentally unstable growth process, the nature of the trigger is secondary. Speculative excess and Ponzi-type debt do not simply involve financial markets at this point but also the rest of the economy. The business press reports that the "middle class" isn't prospering due to the stock market but due to the rise in home prices (for those who already own them). But this price rise is due to the economy and will likely be reversed. BTW, in the current setting, oil price rises may actually have a positive effect if it prevents deflation. Of course an environmental crisis is hardly a positive force except for those who profit off of it. --- in the news: students from Columbine High spoke in favor of gun control to members of the US Congress yesterday. Unfortunately, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were unavailable to present an opposing viewpoint. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/JDevine.html
[PEN-L:9233] Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Moderator request help
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You are setting a very bad example for the rest of us incapable of producing such a volume of quality in such a limited time. Maybe a hundred pages or two Michael seems to write one book a year, which is probably more than the average American reads. How does he do it? Writing just one book nearly killed me. Doug
[PEN-L:9235] High Tech Temps Begin to Organize
Labor Group Wants to Organize Tech Temp Workers It seeks benefits, security for Microsoft `permatemps' Ilana DeBare, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, July 16, 1999 Mark Turner is a lifelong Republican who used to have nothing but contempt for labor unions, including the teachers union and machinists union that counted his parents as members. ``I have browbeat my parents my whole life because I thought unions were a thing of the past,'' he said. Now Turner, 39, is the most unlikely of union supporters. The $31-per-hour computer programmer signed a petition last month asking Microsoft Corp. to bargain collectively with his 20-person work group. ``Now I'm unable to go to my parents' house,'' Turner joked. Turner and his colleagues at Microsoft -- long-term temporary workers who have become known as ``permatemps'' -- are on the cutting edge of a new effort by organized labor to penetrate the world of high tech. Seattle tech workers have formed a group called WashTech that has affiliated with the Communication Workers of America and is trying to organize skilled computer professionals like Turner. They clearly have got an uphill battle. High-tech employees not only are independent minded, but they also often are well paid. Traditional union elections and contracts can't be applied easily to temporary employees, who make up a growing share of the tech workforce. And the entrepreneurial culture of the tech industry means that many workers see stock options rather than union cards as the ticket to financial security. But there are some growing murmurs of discontent within the ranks of tech workers that could create opportunities for unions. Programmers and engineers in their 40s and 50s commonly voice complaints about age discrimination. And as companies rely increasingly on contractors and temporary workers, some high-tech temps are starting to rebel against what they see as second-class status. ``You read about everyone being a millionaire and ready to cash in big,'' said Marcus Courtney, a former temp at Microsoft who helped found WashTech. ``But my own experience after four years in the industry was that I had no health benefits, no retirement plan, no job security. Every day, I worried about whether it would be my last day on the job.'' WashTech so far is focusing on contingent workers -- people employed on a temporary or contract basis. The number of such workers has grown dramatically both inside and outside the computer industry. The portion of the U.S. workforce employed by temporary agencies rose from 0.5 percent in 1982 to 2.2 percent in 1997, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Together with independent contractors and employees of contracting firms, temps now account for one of every 10 workers -- more than 13 million people. And nowhere has this growth gotten more attention than at Microsoft, which for several years has been fighting a class-action lawsuit by temps seeking access to the same benefits as regular employees. Microsoft counts 5,500 to 6,500 temporary employees in its workforce of 30,000, or about 1 of every 5 staffers on its Redmond campus. Many have long-term assignments: 63 percent of the Microsoft temps surveyed by WashTech have been at the company for more than a year. Some Microsoft work groups are made up entirely of orange-badged temps, with only the team's manager wearing the blue badge that marks permanent employees. Microsoft says it uses temps for reasons similar to other high-tech firms -- to keep up with rapid product cycles and dramatic swings in customer demands. For instance, Microsoft might need hundreds of tech-support people when it unveils a new version of Windows, but that need quickly would die down as customers get used to the new product. And many of Microsoft's longtime temps are, in fact, satisfied with their status. They note that temps typically receive a higher hourly pay rate than permanent employees. Mark Dixon, 46, has worked as a multimedia producer at Microsoft on three different temporary assignments for a total of 5 1/2 years. ``I like the flexibility and extra pay of being a contractor, and the change of people and products,'' he said. But other longtime Microsoft temps feel exploited. They say they're being unfairly deprived of benefits ranging from discounts on Microsoft software to sick leave, lucrative stock options and fully paid health care. In 1991, some disgruntled Microsoft contractors filed a class-action lawsuit seeking benefits that continues wending its way through the courts. And in early 1998, a new generation of frustrated temps decided to form WashTech and affiliate with the CWA. They face some daunting organizational challenges. The traditional kind of union election and bargaining process doesn't work well for temps. One problem is that contested union elections can take years to resolve -- by which time temps may have moved on to entirely new assignments. Another problem is that
[PEN-L:9236] from SLATE
USA TODAY reports that President Clinton was ready to bomb sites of suspected Middle East terrorist in the wake of the crash of TWA 800. The story is sourced to a new book, "In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800" by Pat Milton, a reporter for The Associated Press. The book also claims that Clinton had placed the U.S. armed forces on the highest state of alert since the Cuban Missile Crisis in the weeks before the crash, based on intelligence reports that Iran was planning a series of terrorist attacks against the U.S. Hasn't the explosion of flight 800 since been attributed to technical problems with the plane? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:9237] Corruption of a Chinese scientist?
Since 1998, the writer of the following article is one my partners in a financial trading company we started. I think you may enjoy reading the article. Several decades ago, I left the practice of architecture and urban planning under similar circumstances with similar results. Our private group have more than 50 partners like this writer with several new companies in the financial sector, and we are already an independent force now and fully expect to make some big noises within a very few years. We are all socialists by inclination and oppose the ill effects of globalization. Yet we are undeniably active players, albeit reluctant ones, in the globalized finance game. Life is complex, most of us cannot wait for the revolution before we make something of our lives. We are not heroes and certainly no revolutionaries. We are just doing the best we can with what we have - our brains, in a system we don particularly approve. All of us came to America as students, with hardly a penny in our pockets and some with student loans to pay back. We have pledged a good portion of our profit toward progressive causes we support. Henry C.K. Liu DRAGON SLAYER WENT TO THE STREET --My experience in joining the financial industry By B. Perfected in the art of dragon slaying, he started teaching how to slay dragons.. --A cartoon at the NYU Physics Department When a business school faculty member quits academia to join a Wall Street firm, they say He went to the street. It implies that he leaves the safe haven for the jungle of the merciless world. Not without envy, everyone expects him to make a large fortune, though, at the cost of a scholar's soul. Traditionally a person who had gone through the long and arduous way to attain the Ph. D. in theoretical physics had only one destiny: becoming nothing but a professor of physics. All branches of natural sciences culminated in the first half of this century as the first atomic bomb vaporised Hiroshima, television sets crept into the living rooms of the ordinary men, and Neal Armstrong stepped down to the surface of the moon. By the 1990s, it seems that most important and doable things have been done in theoretical physics. The remaining problems are either too difficult, or simply tedious and uninteresting. Like the dragon slayer in the cartoon on the corkboard of the physics department coffee room, I did not find any significant dragons to slay. I went to the street in 1993 after being a postdoctoral research scientist for a year at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. The inspiration came from a few friends and fellow physics graduates who went on to business schools for another Ph.D. in finance. At that time a few former physicists already landed on jobs with famous Wall Street firms. The rumour said some of them were making over a hundred thousand dollars for the first year. It sent shockwaves among the fellow scientists and graduate students. In parties and coffee rooms, I started to hear about talks of options, stock trades, and Wall Street anecdotes. With scepticism I bought the famous book by Professor John C. Hull, Futures, Options, and Other Derivative Securities. My friend at the Stern School of NYU recommended it to me and said that the book was regarded the Bible of Wall Street. To my amazement, the content was quite interesting. It was all about models and formulas that made a lot of sense. I even wondered that I could have discovered the Black and Scholes formula myself if I had had been in finance. For a glimpse at the culture and throat-cutting warfare of the street, I started to read those once best-selling books such as Liars Poker, Money Culture, Thieves at the Den, and Barbarians at the Gate. They absorbed me in a similar way as did the God Father. Then I was ready to try out my lucks. A friend at Prudential Securities gave me a list of eight headhunters and I started sending out resumes. Five of them promptly called and asked me to pay a visit to their offices. In about a month's time, a nice lady headhunter arranged an interview for me with JP Morgan's derivatives research group. In the morning she gave me a final check-up phone call before the interview. Be confident, she said, From now on you will never worry about money again. The JP Morgan building on 60 Wall Street looked serious and intimidating. The guy who received me was very nice. His business card showed his title as Vice President. I was truly shocked. Am I really this important?, I thought. Then I was brain stormed by six interviewers each talked about 20 minutes with me. Three of them asked me game-like questions such as What is the minimum number of times you have to use a balance to find out a fake coin among eight other identical looking real ones?, What is the optimal stopping strategy for getting the highest expected score if you are
[PEN-L:9238] Re: from SLATE
Yes, flight 800 is now understood to have crashed because of bad wiring in the center fuel tank. \ The frenzy at the time over the phantom terrorists tightened domestic "security" once again. And, once tightened, it doesn't get relaxed. Gene Coyle Jim Devine wrote: USA TODAY reports that President Clinton was ready to bomb sites of suspected Middle East terrorist in the wake of the crash of TWA 800. The story is sourced to a new book, "In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800" by Pat Milton, a reporter for The Associated Press. The book also claims that Clinton had placed the U.S. armed forces on the highest state of alert since the Cuban Missile Crisis in the weeks before the crash, based on intelligence reports that Iran was planning a series of terrorist attacks against the U.S. Hasn't the explosion of flight 800 since been attributed to technical problems with the plane? Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html
[PEN-L:9240] [Fwd: GALBRAITH WARNS OF U.S. ECONOMIC BUBBLE]
Sid Shniad wrote: THE VANCOUVER SUN TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1999 GALBRAITH WARNS OF U.S. BUBBLE Legendary economist cites 'another exercise in speculative optimism.' Ashley Seager, Reuters LONDON Legendary "people's economist" John Kenneth Galbraith warned Monday that the United States is facing a speculative bubble and that the age of slump and depression is not past. The author of the definitive work on the Great Crash of 1929 told an audience at the London School of Economics that the U.S. is having "another exercise in speculative optimism following the partial reversal last year." "When you hear it being said that we've entered a new era of permanent prosperity with prices of financial instruments reflecting that happy fact, you should take cover," he said. The 90-year-old Harvard professor, who advised Democratic presidents starting with Franklin Roosevelt and his "New Deal" in the 1930s through to John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s, warned that the bubble could be followed by a painful recession. "Let us not assume that the age of slump, recession, depression is past. Let us have both the needed warnings against speculative excess and awareness that the ensuing slump can be painful," said Galbraith, who has written more than 40 books including the classic The Affluent Society. He said the writings of the economist John Maynard Keynes will come back into fashion with the inevitable slowdown, as governments seek ways to alleviate its effects. Galbraith worked with Keynes in the late 1930s. He said that in spite of great increases in economic growth this century and the release of many people from back-breaking toil in agriculture, there are a great many poor even in the richest countries, and notably in the United States. "Urban poverty is the most evident and painful of the economic and social legacies from the centuries past. The answer ... is rather clear: everybody should be guaranteed a decent basic income. A rich country such as the U.S. can well afford to keep everybody out of poverty. "Some, it will be said, will seize upon the income and won't work. Let us accept some resort to leisure by the poor as well as the rich." Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to India in the 1960s, said one of the major unfinished tasks of the present century and millennium is the alleviation of global poverty. He said that while the end of colonialism had been one of the great achievements of this century, its collapse has often been following by corrupt or inept government. "Economic aid is important but without honest, competent government, it is of little consequence." He said there must be a mechanism to suspend a country's sovereignty when necessary to protect against human suffering and disaster. For Galbraith, the "greatest unfinished business" of the century is the need to eliminate nuclear weapons. "The most urgent task now and of the new century is to bring to an end the threat of Armageddon." -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] THE VANCOUVER SUN TUESDAY, JUNE 29, 1999 GALBRAITH WARNS OF U.S. BUBBLE Legendary economist cites 'another exercise in speculative optimism.' Ashley Seager, Reuters LONDON Legendary "people's economist" John Kenneth Galbraith warned Monday that the United States is facing a speculative bubble and that the age of slump and depression is not past. The author of the definitive work on the Great Crash of 1929 told an audience at the London School of Economics that the U.S. is having "another exercise in speculative optimism following the partial reversal last year." "When you hear it being said that we've entered a new era of permanent prosperity with prices of financial instruments reflecting that happy fact, you should take cover," he said. The 90-year-old Harvard professor, who advised Democratic presidents starting with Franklin Roosevelt and his "New Deal" in the 1930s through to John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s, warned that the bubble could be followed by a painful recession. "Let us not assume that the age of slump, recession, depression is past. Let us have both the needed warnings against speculative excess and awareness that the ensuing slump can be painful," said Galbraith, who has written more than 40 books including the classic The Affluent Society. He said the writings of the economist John Maynard Keynes will come back into fashion with the inevitable slowdown, as governments seek ways to alleviate its effects. Galbraith worked with Keynes in the late 1930s. He said that in spite of great increases in economic growth this century and
[PEN-L:9241] military keynesianism redux
Nicholas von Hoffman recently published an article claiming that there are more than 738,000 police in the U.S., 1 for every 24 people. Is that number in the ball park. It was not clear who was counted. Prison guards? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[PEN-L:9242] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Kant on Debt
By the way someone posted a note that Kant though his philosophy does not apply to women. Is there a reference for that? I know that he did not think that women were suited for philosophy but I hadn't realised that he did not think that the categorical imperative etc. would not apply to them. Ken Hanly perhaps I was unclear and I'm away from my books, but for Kant, moral decisionmaking is 'responsible' (my quotation marks) patriarchal decisionmaking as women have to rely on propertied men to determine and look after their interests... it is, of course, an easy criticism to note that Kant models his ethics on a historically specific image of men...but in relegating women to an affective life, his ethics precludes them because Kantian persons have moral standing in virtue of their rational nature and women cannot be autonomous agents as they are dependent... K does maintain that legislation should take women and other 'passives' into account and he even allows for sympathy on the part of 'actives' when he writes (in "The Metaphysics of Morals", I think) that they should visit places that house the poor and ill to motivate them to do what duty commands (noblesse oblige?)... Michael Hoover
[PEN-L:9246] Re: Re: Kant on Pain Moral Worth
I'm not sure if marxism needs or can even develop its own system of morality, though. Marx may have thought that an attempt to develop a coherent system of morality under capitalism would inevitably though insensibly get transformed into its perversions (hypocritical, impotent, and/or downright immoral) owing to the social contradictions and contingencies that make its application impossible and/or cruel. In other words, morality becomes a Procrustean bed. Yoshie Marx didn't generally address usual moral issues because he thought that individual questions were less important than ones concerning social systems within which people ask such questions...thus, concrete answers to moral questions will come from understanding social systems and how they can be changed... M did write, in _The Grundrisse_, that: 'Avarice is possible without money, but the quest for enrichment is itself the product of a definite social development, not a natural, in contrast to an historical development.' (Nicolaus, trans., 1973, p. 155) above might serve as 'radical evil' of capitalist morality... Michael Hoover
[PEN-L:9247] Re: military keynesianism redux
Michael Perelman wrote:
Nicholas von Hoffman recently published an article claiming that there
are more than 738,000 police in the U.S., 1 for every 24 people. Is
that number in the ball park. It was not clear who was counted. Prison
guards?
At that rate, U.S. population would be 17,712,000. That's close to
the stat that's sometimes used, cops per 10,000 population, which was
28 in 1993.
According to one of my favorite reference books, the Sourcebook of
Criminal Justice Statistics (yours for just $6, call 800-732-3277, or
at http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/), the U.S. criminal justice
system employed 1,825,953 in October 1993, 9% federal, 31% state, and
60% local. Of those, 865,002 were cops ("police protection,"
officially), 375,266 were judicial system, and 585,685 were in
corrections. U.S. pop was 258,175,000, so that works out to one cop
per 298 people, and one criminal justice worker for every 141 people.
In 1995, we had 20,067 campus cops - 64% of them armed - in 680 agencies.
Doug
[PEN-L:9249] RE: Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Moderator request help
But it was great! Ian -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Doug Henwood Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 8:25 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:9233] Re: Re: Re: RE: Re: Re: Moderator request help [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: You are setting a very bad example for the rest of us incapable of producing such a volume of quality in such a limited time. Maybe a hundred pages or two Michael seems to write one book a year, which is probably more than the average American reads. How does he do it? Writing just one book nearly killed me. Doug
[PEN-L:9259] Re: Re: An Essay on the Origins of Racism
Friends and Mathew, Sorry, I accidentally posted this to the list. michael Michael Yates wrote: Mathew, I have read your essay on racism and found it interesting. If you are willing to do a rewrite or two, I'll use it in RRPE. First, I think you should condense the first part on the critique of the racism as natural hypothesis and try to make it a little clearer. Second, you might want to spell out right away with a concrete example the difference between race antagonism and racism. Third, the discussion of the two theories on the origin of racism should be made clearer and here concrete examples would be most useful. It is not clear exactly how, for example, the enlightenment and science are so conducive to racism (and sexism and environmental destruction). This really needs to be spelled out very clearly with concrete examples. And this might sound dumb, but spell out the meaning of discourse for the readers. Consider using something like the modern slave trade as an example to show the difference between the two views. You also need to have a bibliography at the end. I hope this is reasonably clear. Let me know what you think. In solidarity, Michael Yates
[PEN-L:9250] RE: Re: Re: Kant on Debt
and virginity ian -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael Hoover Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 3:24 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PEN-L:9245] Re: Re: Kant on Debt Sam wrote: Kant's ethics make extraordinary demands on people. Kant's "kingdom of ends" is a utopia. Which is the reason why Kant had to believe in the immortality of soul. Another remainder of Christianity in Kant. Yoshie a rather 'hell, fire, and brimstone' remainder given his conception of 'radical evil' in "Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone" (which, ironically, led to him being called an atheist and being prohibited from writing about religion again, a ban that he apparently accepted).. .Kant's hostility to the body is further residue from his puritan upbringing... Michael Hoover
[PEN-L:9248] The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tue, 13 July 99 -- 3:54 (#295)
__ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 13 July 99 Vol. 3, Numbers 54 (#295) __ 17 JULY E. TIMOR ACTION IN NEW YORK CITY Join us SATURDAY, July 17, 1999 at 1 p.m. as the East Timor Action Network dedicates "East Timor Way" near the Indonesian Consulate at Madison and 68th St. in Manhattan. At the July 17 demonstration we will unveil our temporary street sign and call for free fair vote by the East Timorese On July 17 the East Timor Action Network/NY (ETAN) will dedicate a street sign naming 68th Street "East Timor Way." The sign -- to be posted by the City of New York at the northeast corner of Madison Ave. and 68th Street in Manhattan -- temporarily names the street in front of the Indonesian consulate. The posting of the sign is the result of a lawsuit filed by ETAN with support of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The dedication ceremony will be followed by demonstration in support of self-determination and human rights for East Timor directly across from the consulate. The dedication and protest take place on the anniversary of Indonesia's formal annexation of East Timor as its 27th Province and weeks before a U.N.-organized vote by the East Timorese on their political status. With the support of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), ETAN sued the City of New York in mid-May. The lawsuit challenged its refusal of ETAN's request for a temporary street renaming. The posting of the sign for July 17 is a partial settlement of the federal lawsuit which criticizes the arbitrary way in which the city implements its temporary street sign policy. ETAN and CCR will continue to litigate the first amendment issues involved. Contact below for more information: John M. Miller Media Outreach Coordinator, East Timor Action Network PO Box 150753, Brooklyn, NY 11215-0753 USA Phone: (718)596-7668 -- Fax: (718)222-4097 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.etan.org -- DECLARATION AGAINST RACISM "S.I.S.I.S." [EMAIL PROTECTED] Attached are the signers to the declaration as of June 19, 1999. If you wish to sign the declaration, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]. We will be posting this declaration on our website and will send copies to the Sea Shepherd Society and other animal rights/environmental groups who have participated in using racism in their opposition to the Makah whale hunt. Many thanks to all the groups and individuals who have pledged their support to the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest. - - - - - We, the undersigned, wish to express our solidarity with native peoples of the Pacific Northwest, who are currently suffering from a racist backlash to the recent hunting of a whale by Makah people. The backlash has included bomb threats against native schools, and threats to shoot native people as "revenge" for the whale. Native people have been refused service by white owners of stores and other businesses in the Pacific Northwest. One native man was beaten so badly he is now in a wheelchair. This declaration is not about whether or not the Makah whale hunt is "right" or "wrong". It is an assertion that racism is always wrong. While we, the undersigned, have varying opinions about the hunting of whales, we agree on the following: 1) Racism in all forms must be opposed. We reject any attempts by environmentalists, animal rights activists, or any other groups to use racism to gain support for a cause. 2) We call on all groups and individuals concerned about the whaling to take a strong stand against the racist backlash that is currently happening as a result of racist and inflammatory rhetoric used by environmental and animal rights groups such as the Sea Shepherd Society. 3) We recognize and support the sovereignty of all native nations, including the Makah. We reject attempts to use this whale hunt to undermine native nations struggling to assert their sovereignty. 4) We reject the polarization of this issue into "Makah vs. the whales". We believe that this oversimplification of the Makah whale hunt plays up racist stereotypes instead of addressing questions of animal exploitation. As the Makah have pointed out, non-native people kill animals deliberately every day for food, clothing, entertainment, and experimentation, with no regard for the suffering of the animals or the devastating effects on the overall environment; non-native industry is responsible for the deaths of countless whales every year. While we, the undersigned, may differ in our opinions of the Makah whale hunt itself, we are united in our condemnation of the racist tactics which are being used to oppose the hunt. We fully support native peoples of the Pacific Northwest and offer our
[PEN-L:9245] Re: Re: Kant on Debt
Sam wrote: Kant's ethics make extraordinary demands on people. Kant's "kingdom of ends" is a utopia. Which is the reason why Kant had to believe in the immortality of soul. Another remainder of Christianity in Kant. Yoshie a rather 'hell, fire, and brimstone' remainder given his conception of 'radical evil' in "Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone" (which, ironically, led to him being called an atheist and being prohibited from writing about religion again, a ban that he apparently accepted).. ..Kant's hostility to the body is further residue from his puritan upbringing... Michael Hoover
[PEN-L:9243] RE: military keynesianism redux
Nicholas von Hoffman recently published an article claiming that there are more than 738,000 police in the U.S., 1 for every 24 people. Is that number in the ball park. It was not clear who was counted. Prison guards? Could be right. Census reports 623,000 government employees with power of arrest, just for state and local governments. Corrections is another 678,000, tho some of that would not be guards. mbs
[PEN-L:9239] U.S. Drug Policy in Latin America
The Progressive Response 16 July 1999 Vol. 3, No. 25 Editor: Martha Honey The Progressive Response (PR) is a weekly service of Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), a joint project of the Interhemispheric Resource Center and the Institute for Policy Studies. We encourage responses to the opinions expressed in PR. Table of Contents *** COMMENTS ON U.S. DRUG POLICY IN LATIN AMERICA *** by Peter Zirnite and Coletta Youngers *** FURTHER LOOK AT THE CIA-CONTRA-COCAINE CONNECTION *** Intro by Martha Honey, excerpt from Peter Dale Scott's report *** COMMENTS ON U.S. DRUG POLICY IN LATIN AMERICA *** (Editor's note: This summer, the Foreign Policy In Focus project and the Drug Policy Project of the Institute for Policy Studies are co-sponsoring a weekly speaker and film series entitled "Rethinking the Drug War." The July 8 session, "Addicted to Failure: U.S. Drug War Overseas," featured Peter Zirnite and Coletta Youngers, both experts on the militarization of the U.S. antinarcotics efforts in Latin America. Both are also FPIF writers. Below are excerpts from their talks.) Peter Zirnite: South of the U.S.-Mexican border, the United States is engaging militaries as its primary partners in narcotics control. This is at a time when fledgling democracies are trying to solidify their power, keep military involvement in the barracks, and limit military activities to national defense--their rightful role. Washington has had a long love affair with Latin American militaries. And I find this even more scandalous than that illicit liaison that dominated the headlines last summer. While in both cases we have an extremely powerful figure that's taking advantage of a weaker yet willing party, Washington's strengthening of its arms' ties in the name of drug control has given rise to high crimes and misdemeanors that truly undermine the foundations of democracy. And this raises the question, why then has this unseemly relationship failed to attract the media spotlight or generate a loud public outcry? To really understand why we haven't had the outcry that this issue should generate, we have to look at the roots of how U.S. policymakers came to believe that local militaries are the best partners in the war on drugs. And this is a relationship that has deep, deep roots nurtured by two well-documented proclivities of the U.S. The first is the U.S.'s penchant to blame social ills such as drug abuse on outside, foreign influence. An impulse that gives rise to a drug control policy that doesn't focus on demand (almost every other nation's policy does), but instead addresses the supply. The second, and I think this is really the one that addresses the issue of militarization, is our propensity to call in the Marines. You've got a problem, whenever there's a national threat, call in the Marines. President Nixon put the process in motion when he declared drug trafficking a national security threat. Ever since that declaration, national security has been the rallying cry for everyone who advocated more firepower and money for the war on drugs. Last July, for instance, national security was invoked by Republican leaders when they announced their Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act. Republicans ludicrously claim that their $2.6 billion plan will reduce drug flow into this country by 80% by the year 2001. Yet the goal of our actual national drug control strategy is to reduce drug trafficking by 15%, despite the fact that in recent years the flow of drugs has not declined but increased. A decade after Nixon first declared drugs to be a national security threat President Reagan launched a rapid expansion of U.S. military involvement in drug control efforts which remains unabated today. The Reagan administration rationalized the expansion of the military role, in part by linking drug trafficking to leftist guerrillas and governments, specifically in Cuba and Nicaragua. This guerrilla-drug link facilitated the U.S. shift from a cold war posture to a drug war posture by bringing in many of the same old foes. Thus, the Pentagon employs the same tactics used to fight commies to fight drug traffickers. In 1988, when Congress passed the national defense appropriations and authorization, it made the Defense Department (DOD) the lead agency in the detection and monitoring of aerial and marine transit zones into the United States. Congress required DOD to integrate it's communications and technical intelligence networks with other various federal agencies and it also required DOD to coordinate the increased use of the National Guard in anti-narcotics activity. In 1993, President Clinton did shift the emphasis
[PEN-L:9234] Re: Kant's Immortal Soul, or, the Sublime Subject
I can't always keep up with your hopscotch, but your misreading of
Kant's politics really needs to be answered. You are leaving aside
the distinction Kant makes between the 'metaphysics of right', which
is about the purely rational principles of the ideal state, and the problem
of the practical realization of this ideal state. Kant was certainly
no radical out of touch with the world, expecting a
complete, sudden remaking of existing states through the
extermination of one's opponents, but understood
that the actualization of freedom and reason in the world would have
to be accomplished under real social conditions, conditions which
always call for pragmatic compromises. Only through reform, he argue,
could an actual state be pushed toward the ideal state. So, while he rejects
the use of revolutionary violence, on the grounds that it would simply
bring back the lawless 'state of nature', he does not oppose
reform. I also think that Kant's political philosophy does not
preclude armed resistence to a really oppressive state. Moreover,
his argument against revolutionary violence is not an argument
against civil disobedience, which, even if he did not write about,
can be fitted into his political philosophy, as John Rawls has done.
ricardo
In the case of Kant, faith in the immortality of soul is linked to his
anti-hedonist anti-revolutionary doctrine (with regard to both 'internal'
freedom 'external' right). Respect for the Law ("Do Your Duty!) at all
costs, even at the cost of having to silently endure a tyranny. Kant was
honest enough to admit that his doctrine comes with such high costs.
Kant wrote in "On the Common Saying: 'This May be True in Theory, but it
does not Apply in Practice'": "It thus follows [from the theory of the
original contract] that all resistance against the supreme legislative
power, all incitement of the subjects to violent expressions of discontent,
all defiance which breaks out into rebellion, is the greatest and most
punishable crime in a commonwealth, for it destroys its very foundations.
This prohibition is *absolute*. And even if the power of the state or its
agent, the head of state, has violated the original contract by authorizing
the government to act tyrannically, and has thereby, in the eyes of the
subject, forfeited the right to legislate, the subject is still not
entitled to offer counter-resistance. The reason for this is that the
people, under an existing civil constitution, has no longer any right to
judge how the constitution should be administered Nor can a right of
necessity...be invoked here as means of removing the barriers which
restrict the power of the people; for it is monstrous to suppose that we
can have a right to do wrong in the direst (physical) distress." Kant goes
on to condemn the "errors" of elevating the Happiness of the People over
the Principle of Right and thus of advocating the overthrow of the existing
state. For Kant, "It is obvious...that the principle of happiness...has ill
effects in political right just as in morality[for] the people are
unwilling to give up their universal human desire to seek happiness in
their own way, and thus become rebels."
What would better sustain the subject's unconditional obedience to the law,
*even in the face of material deprivation, physical distress, and political
oppression*, than the intimations of his soul's divinity and immortality?
Kant wrote [in the same article]: "Admittedly, it [the principle of
happiness] does not contradict the experience which the *history* of maxims
derived from various principles provides. Such experience, alas, proves
that most of them are based on selfishness. But it does contradict our
(necessarily inward) experience that no idea can so greatly elevate the
human mind and inspire it with such enthusiasm as that of a pure moral
conviction, respecting duty above all else, struggling with countless evils
of existence and even with their most seductive temptations, and yet
overcoming them--for we may rightly assume that man can do so. The fact
that man is aware that he can do this just because he ought discloses
within him an ample store of divine capabilities and inspire him, so to
speak, with a holy awe at the greatness and sublimity of his true
vocation." Ah, the flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing!
In other words, Kant does not "hold sacred" the "inviolability of human
being as such." What is sacred for Kant is the Law (moral and political).
Kant wrote: "[The] preservation of the state from evil is an absolute duty,
while the preservation of the individual is merely a relative duty (i.e. it
applies only if he is not guilty of a crime against the state)." For Kant,
what is worthy of dignity is not the mind and body of an empirical,
actually existing, and historically constituted individual; his body and
welfare may be readily sacrificed for the sake of duty, for what is worth
[PEN-L:9232] old world return
I will be away from my office for the next 10 days or so, going to London, UK. Thus, I will be unable to respond to any postings to this list. Have a nice summer everyone. wojtek
[PEN-L:9230] Iraq still being bombed
Friday July 16 7:15 AM ET Air Force Says It Bombs Northern Iraq Site BONN, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. planes bombed a communications site near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Friday after being fired on by Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery, the U.S. Air Force's European Command said. The attacks on the site southeast of Mosul took place between 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Iraqi time (3 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. EDT), the German-based command told Reuters. It said all aircraft charged with monitoring the no-fly zone over northern Iraq left the area safely. It added that the extent of damage caused by the F-16 jets, which dropped laser-guided bombs on the target, was still being assessed. The bombings are the latest in a series of incidents involving American and British jets and Iraqi air defenses after Baghdad said in December it would not recognize Western-enforced no-fly zones set up after the 1991 Gulf War. The monitoring of the northern no-fly zone, code-namedOperation Northern Watch, is a joint U.S., British and Turkish operation.
[PEN-L:9226] China dismisses Cox Report
SCMP Friday, July 16, 1999 Details said to have been stolen readily available: State Council AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The State Council's report offers a point-by-point dismissal of US allegations outlined in the Cox report. The following is a step-by-step breakdown of the statement from Beijing: NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY US CHARGE: China stole information on seven US nuclear warheads. CHINA'S REPLY: Such information is openly available on the Internet, with 100 articles about the principle and structure of the neutron bomb found. US: China stole US thermonuclear weapons codes for new weapons. CHINA: The codes mentioned are widely used for nuclear reactor engineering design and circulate among research institutes and universities of member countries of the International Atomic Energy Agency. US: China stole secrets through extensive exchanges with US nuclear scientists. CHINA: Such exchanges were approved and carried out under supervision by both governments and strictly limited to the prevention of nuclear proliferation, arms control and environmental issues. SATELLITE AND MISSILE TECHNOLOGY US: China stole US satellite technology. CHINA: China began developing satellite launch technology in the 1970s when Western countries banned hi-tech exports to China. More than 40 satellites have been successfully launched since 1970, with China beginning to launch US-made satellites only in 1990. US: China stole US missile technology through commercial satellite launches and applied it to its missile programme. CHINA: Missile technology capable of achieving pinpoint accuracy is much more sophisticated than satellite launch technology, therefore it was unreasonable to accuse the mainland of stealing US satellite launch technology to improve its missiles. SPYING AND OTHER ACTIVITIES US: China stole US satellite technology during the process of launching US satellites. CHINA: Extensive security regulations were in place and monitored around the clock by US government inspectors who reported no Chinese thefts or breaches of security during some 20 commercial satellite launches since 1990. US: Scientific, educational and cultural exchanges under China's "863 Programme", for developing science and technology, are a cover for espionage. CHINA: Such accusations are "typical racial discrimination" and "the reappearance of McCarthyism". US: The "863 Programme" is being used for biological warfare and nuclear weapons development. CHINA: The programme's gene research plan was clearly designed for developing new medicines, while the plan to develop a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor was basic research for nuclear energy.
Re: [PEN-L:9219] Re: Re: Re: Kant on Pain Moral Worth
I think that you (or Allen Wood) are confusing judicial doctrine with the more abstract concept of justice. People generally (neoclassically trained microeconomists being the most glaring exception) have definite ideas of "just" and "unjust" behaviour and situations and these are unlikely to be seriously challenged by changes in production relations. An incompetent, overpaid manager or bureaucrat will be resented in a socialist society as much as in a capitalist one. The enlightenment project of replacing innate concepts of justice with market and contract based ones clearly conforms to capitalist interests and has had a significant but not overwhelming effect on judicial doctrine, more in the USA than elsewhere. Equity has never been entirely excluded from the law courts. Atiyah's "The rise and fall of freedom of contract" is essential reading for a proper appreciation of these issues, and the present dead cat bounce of freedom of contract doctrines does not change his basic conclusion. JML - Original Message - From: Sam Pawlett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 1:24 AM Subject: [PEN-L:9219] Re: Re: Re: Kant on Pain Moral Worth Jim Devine wrote: However, I find the readings on "Marxism and Morality" that I've done to be interesting and useful. Marxism may not be (or incorporate) an ethical system, but it does not contradict all ethical systems. Allen Wood developed the interesting argument that Marx's critique of political economy had nothing to do with justice and that the capitalist class does exploit the working class but this exploitation is just. Wood explains: "He (Marx SP) equally scorned those concerned themselves with formulating principles of distributive justice and condemning capitalism in their name. Marx conceives that justice of economic transactions as their correspondence to or functionality for the prevailing mode of production. Given this conception of justice, Marx very consistently concluded that the inhuman exploitation practiced by capitalism against the workers is not unjust, and does not violate the worker's rights; this conclusion constitutes no defense of capitalism, only an attack on the use of moral conceptions within the proletarian movement. Marx saw the task of the proletarian movement in his time as one of self-definition, discipline and self-criticism based on scientific self-understanding. He left for later stages of the movement the task of planning the future society which it is the historic mission of the movement to bring forth." To summarize, law and justice are judicial concepts. Judicial concepts belong to the superstructure which is determined by the mode of production. A society will thus have a conception of justice that fits and grows naturally out of its mode of production. Capitalist exploitation is just in capitalist mode of production but unjust in a socialist mode. It is wrong therefore, to ascribe some universal form of justice applicable to all modes of production. A future communist society will not be 'more just' than capitalist capitalism, it will simply have a conception of justice that fits its mode of production; a mode of production where capitalist exploitation doesn't exist. Wood fleshes out his argument in his book _Karl Marx_ and his article "Marx and the Critique of Justice", Philosophy and Public Affairs, VI no. 3 1972. Seems to me that Wood's main goal is to avoid pigeonholing Marx as a utilitarian or as a partisan of a deontological(Kantian) form of ethics. Sam Pawlett
