[PEN-L:7682] Superexploitation
Can anyone find me a reference citation on the subject of super-exploitation? I can't find anythjing, but remember some brief discussion of it on pen-l a few months back. Thanks in advance. Cheers -- Eric Schutz
[PEN-L:7684] Re: Superexploitation
Carl Dassbach, PEN-L participant, uses the concept of super-exploitation in his contribution to a new book entitled, I believe, North American Auto Unions in Crisis. I hope that Carl sees this and fills in the details. Rakesh Ethnic Studies UC Berkeley
[PEN-L:7690] Re: Superexploitation
On Mon, 2 Dec 1996 09:17:54 -0800 (PST) [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: Can anyone find me a reference citation on the subject of super-exploitation? I can't find anythjing, but remember some brief discussion of it on pen-l a few months back. Thanks in advance. Cheers -- Eric Schutz At the time, the earliest and most explicit reference found was in Andre Gunder Frank's book, Crisis in the Third World (1981). But an earlier source is Ernest Mandel's Marxist Economic Theory, which dates from the 60's. Walter Daum
[PEN-L:7692] utopian apologies
oops. This Alzheimer's is getting to be too much. ;-) Actually, it's the absent-minded professor syndrome, which gets worse when I have too much work to do. I sent a ms. on utopias to pen-l that was actually supposed to go to Phil O'Hara's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, the first book ever known to be produced mostly via e-mail. (Note how I subtlely snuck in a plug.) Anyway, if anyone has any comments on my ms. on Utopia, please send them to me directly rather than to pen-l. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
[PEN-L:7683] Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin shouldn't be faulted for being invisible. He's probably busy cranking out books, a worthy type of labor even though his products are so deeply flawed. Also, an emphasis on technology as the source of all evil doesn't encourage social activism (that's uniting theory and practice!) BTW, he used to really active. Back in 1976, he organized one of the three alternative to the US bicentennial celebrations. Even then, most of the people I knew on the left had little respect for his ideas. One person who knew him personally (from high school) thought of him as a total careerist and self-promoter. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
[PEN-L:7689] Utopia unbound!
here's my piece on utopia: Utopia. James Devine December 2, 1996 "Utopia" refers to images of an ideal society; its opposite is "dystopia," visions of the worst society. Utopian visions make moral principles more concrete in a way that can guide us in creating new and different ways of organizing society and economy. Thus, utopianism represents a radical extension of normative economics. As Geoffrey Hodgson (1995) argues, utopian visions have been central to the putatively anti-utopian economics of Friedrich Hayek, Karl Marx, and Thomas Malthus. Most modern economists adopt a utopian vision based on principles of laissez- faire, a descendant of Adam Smith's conception of the natural liberty of isolated individuals working harmoniously through markets and exchange and little positive role for government. Though the Arrow-Debreu general equilibrium model indicates that the assumptions necessary to the existence and stability of this ideal are unrealistic, laissez-faire forms the intellectual basis of the dominant school of normative economics and of current neo-liberal ideology. On the other hand, most utopian thinking (with the rare exception, such as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein) is collectivist, emphasizing values of reason, justice, and solidarity. When Thomas More coined the word "utopia," he merged two Greek words meaning "good place" and "no place." A typical utopia is thus a morally ideal situation seen as unobtainable, given current political, economic, societal, and technological conditions. A serious utopian goes beyond fanciful visions of the "Garden of Eden" variety, pre-utopian images of the "Golden Age" of the past, and satire such as Samuel Butler's Erewhon and tries to explain how his or her vision would be feasible if these given conditions were to change. The more useful utopias rely not on unreal technology or on radical alterations of human character but on reorganized societal arrangements which can spawn improved techniques and improve incentives and personalities. Despite their unreachability, utopian visions have been used as yard-sticks for judging actually-existing societies, as guides to policy and practice, or as inspirations for changing the world. What follows is an incomplete survey of some utopian contributions to political economy. (For more complete surveys, see the references.) As Kumar (1986) points out, almost all developed utopian thinking comes from the "Western" tradition. This may be because utopian dreams are encouraged by the disruption of tradition and the injustices arising from modernization and commercialization, a process that has gone further in the "West." Plato's Republic, the first known utopia, is also the earliest to argue the idea that people can benefit from the division of labor. But rather than representing a mode of cooperation amongst atomistic individuals, his division of labor represents internal relations of an organic whole. Plato aimed to make that whole healthy, to embody his ideal of justice. The social and political structure (involving hierarchy, censorship, and an artificial civic religion, among other things) fostered the development of moral character in its governing Guardians. This character insured the reproduction of the system over time. Following Plato, and in stark contrast to neoclassical economics, the endogeneity of human character is a common utopian theme, implying the need for an ideal social organization to foster personal development. Thomas More's Utopia (1516) updates the Republic, presenting a more concrete picture of a society that serves all basic needs. Though written as a satire, it was a critique of the society of his time, specifically of the British enclosure movement and the replacement of feudal agrarian society by commercial capitalism. Need and the work-day were reduced by more efficient organization, partly via the abolition of unemployment and unproductive work. Goods are produced by all in a collectivist way and distributed freely; scholarly learning is emphasized. This system was organized in a relatively egalitarian and democratic way (for More's time), idealizing traditional village or monastic life. Making it successful was the assumption of a wise Founder and a religion that abolished the sin of pride. Symbolizing More's anticommericalism, gold is used to make chamber pots. More's image of a small far-away island ideal has been the dominant image, even as utopians embraced Jean-Jacques republican ideas, visions of non-capitalist progress, and modern technology. For a recent examples, see Theodor Hertzka's imperialist but innovative Freeland (1890), Charlotte Perkins Gilman's feminist Herland (1915), B.F. Skinner's social- scientific Walden Two (1948), or Aldous Huxley's Buddhist and drug-using
[PEN-L:7688] Break the embargo on Iraqi children!
Friends and Fellow Activists: As many of you are no doubt aware, according to UN statistics more than 500,000 Iraqi children have died as a result of the US/UN embargo. In response to this crisis a Chicago-based peace group, Voices in the Wilderness, has been campaigning against the embargo, particularly attempting to bring media attention to the plight of Iraqi children, the shortage of food and medicine, and the lack of safe drinking water. VITW has organized three delegations to Iraq, in violation of the US ban on travel to Iraq and also in violation of the US ban on the delivery of medicine to Iraq. I have been asked to join the fourth delegation, which flies to Amman next Monday, December 9. We will be taking medicine that has been requested by humanitarian organizations in Basra and attempting to draw publicity to the ongoing human crisis. So far we are having some success; a CNN crew accompanied the third delegation which left November 25. So, as an impoverished graduate student, I ask your assistance. If any of you could help with a contribution, we would greatly appreciate it. Sorry for the short notice, but our delegation was up in the air until the last minute -- our visas just arrived this past week. Thank you for your consideration and any assistance you can give. Please make checks to "Voices in the Wilderness" (or "VITW") and send to: Robert Naiman 1821 W. Cullerton Chicago Il 60608-2716 Contributions will be most useful if they arrive in Chicago by December 7. Below I include a note and press release from our project organizer, Kathy Kelly. Please feel free to forward this appeal. We are, of course, totally in the open in terms of our deliberate violation of US law -- we will be faxing US Attorney General Janet Reno before our departure. -- From: Kathleen Kelly [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: VITW delegations to Iraq Dear Friends, Below is a press release which tells about the November 25 departure of a third delegation from the Voices in the Wilderness project. On December 9, four more people will leave Chicago for Iraq, again in deliberate violation of the U.S./UN sanctions. They are: Bob Bossie, SCJ, Chicago; Bob Naiman, Chicago; Chuck Quilty, Rock Island, IL; and Brad Simpson, Chicago. Bob Naiman and Brad Simpson are graduate students in Urban Planning and Political Science, respectively. They would be quite grateful for any assistance our supporters might give them to pay for their airfare. As ever, contributions toward organizing expenses and purchase of medicines are very welcome, along with 1) names of new signers who want to join with the 156 signers of the letter to Janet Reno declaring public violation of the sanctions and 2) medicines for shipment to Iraq. Thanks for your interest and support. Sincerely, Kathy Kelly for Voices in the Wilderness, 1460 West Carmen Avenue, Chicago, IL 60640 For Immediate Release Chicago Contact: Kathy Kelly November 27, 1996 773-784-8065 Rev. Robert Bossie, SCJ 312-641-5151 DELEGATION GOES TO IRAQ IN OPEN VIOLATION OF US/UN SANCTIONS Chicago--While many Americans prepare Thanksgiving feasts, a delegation which left Chicago on November 25 will head for Iraq, bringing emergency medical relief supplies to starving children and families. Richard J. McDowell of Akron, OH, Bert Sacks of Seattle, WA and Joe and Jean Gump, of Kalamazoo, MI, plan to arrive in Baghdad on Thanksgiving Day. In an October 28, 1996 statement, Carol Bellamy, the executive director of UNICEF, said "with no end to sanctions in sight, about 4500 children are dying each month, in Iraq, of hunger and disease." When told that an agreement has been reached regarding U.N. Resolution 986, which allows for a partial lifting of the sanctions, Joe Gump called the measure "too little and too late. We're campaigning for a complete end to these sanctions." The delegation plans to travel from Baghdad to Basra, Iraq's third largest city, located on the Kuwait-Iraq border. Basrans are severely afflicted by hunger, an acute lack of medicine to treat outbreaks of infectious diseases, and the absence of safe drinking water. U.S./ UN imposed sanctions directly cause the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and adults. The delegation will fast and vigil in Baghdad, in front of the U.S. interests section of Baghdad, urging an end to the sanctions which have already caused the deaths of 600,000 children. On December 11, they will hold a press conference in front of the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan where they will present U.S. officials with samples of water, from Basra, asking if the officials would want to give this water to their children. The national campaign, Voices in the Wilderness, has collected signatures from around the country of people who wish to publicly violate the U.S./UN sanctions against Iraq. This is the third
[PEN-L:7687] No More Econ Ph.D's
Has anyone read John Cassidy's piece in the 12/2/96 New Yorker. "The Decline of Economics"? It's a bunch of fluff, but there are some choice quotes: "Is economics making enough progress to justify the millions of dollars a year that the taxpayer spends to subsidize economic research? the answer is no... Economists are like dairy farmers. We think we deserve every penny we get... We need more well-trained high-school teachers of economics, not more Ph.D economists." -- Greg Mankiw "I write down a bunch of equations, and I say this equation has to do with people's preferences and the equation is a description of the technology. But this doesn't make it so. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong. That has to be a matter of evidence. ...Monetary shocks just aren't that important. That's the view I've been driven to. There's no question, that's a retreat in my views." -- Robert Lucas "Because of [Robert] Lucas and others, for two decades no graduate students were trained who were capable of competing with us by building econometric models that had a hope of explaining short-run output and price dynamics. We educated a lot of macroeconomists who were trained to do only two things - teach macroeconomics to graduate students and publish in the journals." -- Laurence Meyer Even on Wall Street, which has traditionally provided a rewarding outlet for economists, there has been a reaction against the subject. Morgan Stanley, for example will not hire economics Ph.D's unless they also have substantial experience outside academe. "We insist on at least a three-to-four-year cleansing experience to neutralize the brainwashing that takes place in these graduate programs." -- Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley Economist
[PEN-L:7691] Part III: Scientific Laws Of Political Economy
What is the condition that has to be changed in order to avoid the multifarious economic laws that blindly operate with such destructive consequences under capitalism? The great contradiction must be resolved between the social forces of production and the capitalist relations of production that stem from private ownership of the means of production. With the resolution of that contradiction, socialism can begin to be built. Gradually the various economic laws that now wreak havoc lose the fertile conditions on which they operate, such as: the law of surplus value and its fully developed expression, the law of maximum profit; the law of average profit; the law of the falling rate of profit; the law of competition and anarchy of production; the laws that emanate from the contradictions between production and consumption, between mental and manual labor, city and countryside, the quality and quantity of labor, exchange-value and use-value, and the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; even the law of value loses its scope of operation under socialism as commodity production is more and more curtailed and all production is brought under scientific socialist planning. Scientific economic laws that have not been seen before find fertile soil for their expression under socialism and must be studied and consciously applied. The basic law of socialism is the securing of the satisfaction of the constantly rising material and cultural requirements of the whole of society through the continuous expansion and perfection of socialist production on the basis of higher techniques. Another law is the balanced (proportionate) development of the national economy, from which the science of economic planning and extended reproduction under socialism flows. The working class and peasantry seized political power from the capitalist class and the remnants of the feudal aristocracy in Russia in 1917. This revolution spread into the other nations that eventually formed the Soviet Union in 1923. Relying on the economic law that the relations of production must necessarily conform with the character of the productive forces, the Soviet government, under J.V. Stalin, socialized the means of production, made them the property of the whole people, and thereby abolished the exploiting system and created socialist forms of the economy. One of the great discoveries that comes from the success of building socialism in the Soviet Union is that as the productive forces grow and extend into all regions, the economic law that the relations of production must necessarily conform with the productive forces comes to the fore once again. The operation of this law under the conditions of socialism was little understood. This was one of the major theoretical challenges of the 1950s and the communist leadership that succeeded J.V. Stalin made no progress on this front. What changes were necessary in the relations of production to bring them into conformity with the increasing socialization of the productive forces? The changes dictated by the operation of this law were not discovered. The social forces that objectively did not want to understand and give full expression to this law were those in positions of authority in the state and Party who were for capitalist restoration. They did not want to give way to new leadership and methods of running the country and the economy, to new relations of production. They became an active opposition to the correct application of this law of political economy. The relations of production in the Soviet Union during the 1950s were never developed in conformity with the productive forces, resulting in the strengthening of those forces that were for the restoration of capitalism and the eventual seizure of the social property by the new bourgeoisie. Shawgi Tell University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education [EMAIL PROTECTED]
