Re: money wage cuts & employment

[Carrol Cox]

Margaret Coleman wrote:

>  It is this same reasoning which answers my question of
> why welfare reform now --  We were running out of women to put into low wage
> work, and we needed to 'free' them from the bonds of welfare....  cheers,

This makes sense, but it raises a question -- which perhaps the
old base/superstructure metaphor may help phrase. On the one
hand we have a capitalist need -- roughly, a need felt in
the relations of production crudely conceived. On the other
hand we have Clinton (with Gore's urging) and Congress
passing legislation (superstructure crudely conceived) that
indirectly fills that need. Can the various mediations connecting
the two be described?

I doubt that the CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken or of some
mail processing plant in Iowa called up their Senator and said,
Hey, push some more workers our way. Or did Clinton and
various thinktanks somehow intuit the need coming up?

Carrol