--- "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Mike B. writes:
> >I'm wondering about these pressures to cut costs
> which
> Chomsky refers to. Don't they lead to the big, nice
> co:operative having to try to find cheaper sources
> of
> material via low wage, usually dictatorial political
> states?<
>
> FWIW, David Schweikert's "market socialist" utopia
> of worker-managed co-operatives has two major
> institutions that are aimed at preventing the
> co-ops' profit-maximization from turning into this
> kind of thing:
>
> 1) a minimum wage, so that profit-max doesn't
> involve co-ops competing via a race to the bottom
> among themselves.
>
> [I think there must also be some rule about not
> hiring non-co-op members to do work. But I don't
> remember it.}
>
> 2) a special tariff on imports from countries that
> don't live up to labor standards. In this case, the
> revenues collected by making these imports more
> expensive to domestic consumers are supposed to be
> returned to the country whose imports are taxed as a
> lump sum (development aid).
>
> Jim Devine
Thanks Jim. These reforms sound very nice and I'm
sure that most people would be happier if they were
put in force. Still, I remain sick to death of the
poltical-economy of commodity production.
Best,
Mike B)
=====
****************************************************************
...the safest course is to do nothing
against one's conscience.
With this secret, we can enjoy
life and have no fear from death.
Voltaire
http://profiles.yahoo.com/swillsqueal
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
http://mail.yahoo.com
