Re: Darwin's dilemma (fwd)
There is some confusion below. Obviously, Darwin's ideas were quite progressive judged against his own circumstances charecterized by religious convictions in Britian at that time. However, Darwin was not a revolutionary or marxist. This is partly because Darwin could not entirely break away with the morals of the British ruling class of his time. In terms of evolutionary theory, he was closer to Spencer and Malthus (inevitability of limits), rather than to Marx. In fact, there is no evidence of influence from Marx to Darwin, except the fact that Engels and Marx discovered in evolution a revolutionary potential for their materialist conception of history.Accordingly, some lovers of Darwin see Marx's historical materialism consequential of Darwin's evolutionary theory. In my view, this is an over-statement which assimilates Marx to Darwin, while we should assume the contrary as Marxists. If we read Engels, we get a slightly different picture. Engels' speech at the funeral of Marx compares Darwin to Marx by still maintaining Marx's distinctiveness: "Just as Darwin discovered the law of evolution in organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of human nature in human history" WHEN MARX DIED: COMMENTS IN 1883 edited by Philip S. Foner (NY: International Publishers, 1973). Darwin was not happy with the idea of socialism, and was in fact critical of people trying to revolutionize evolutionary theory. Darwin was still loyal to the ideology of the ruling class. He always wanted to maintain his cool scientific position avoiding political contraversy over socialism: "When his theory was connected with socialism and later with democratic movements in Germany, he wrote,"What a foolish idea seems to prevail in Germany on the connection between Socialism and Evolution through Natural Selection." An analogous dissociation from publicly controverted issues about beliefs emerges from a letter to Edward Aveling, who lived with Marx's daughter Eleanor and had declared publicly in 1879 that he was an atheist and became a militant political agitator in several antireligious organizations. Aveling asked for Darwin's permission to dedicate to him an exposition of his ideas, _The Student's Darwin_, to be published by an avowedly antireligious publishing house of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh which bore the subtitle: "International Library of Science and Freethought/II." Darwin politely declined, saying, Dear Sir, - I thank you for your friendly letter and the enclosure. The publication of your observations on my writings, in whatever form they may appear, really does not need any consent on my part, and it would be ridiculous for me to grant my permission for something which does not require it. I should prefer the part of the volume not to be dedicated to me (although I thank you for the intended honour), as that would to a certain extent suggest my approval of the whole work, with which I am not acquainted" (taken from a science list serv, Robert Young) Also I have read somewhere (where I don't specifically remember now) that the reason why Darwin returned Marx's Capital (vol II) was not only because he did not understand the political economy side of it, but also because he did not want to disappoint the religious circles he was personally involved in (relatives, friends, etc..). Furthermore, Marx's request to dedicate Capital to Darwin seems to be done under the influence of son in law Aveling for entirely different purposes (so Stephen Gould makes up a little bit, I guess, about this correspondence part) I was told when I was into those issues some time ago: To the person requesting info on the Darwin-Marx connection -- there was a short exchange of letters in 1873, following Marx's dispatch of a complimentary copy of the 2nd German edition of Kapital to Darwin. Darwin wrote back a short, perfunctory response saying he appreciated the copy but that he was not sure he could understand "political economy (he understood Malthus and Adam Smith quite well, however). Anyway, that was the end of the exchange (a later letter from Darwin in 1880 was thought to be a response to Marx's request to dedicate another edition of Kapital to Darwin, but it later turned out to be in response to a request from son-in law Edward Aveling to dedicate to Darwin a popularization of evolutionary theory for students. If you want more details on the Darwin-Marx relationship, wrote a relatively short article in 1992, as part of a symposium from the Field Museum in Chicago, and published in MATTHEW H. NITECKI AND DORIS V. NITECKI, History and Evolution (Albany, State UYniv of New York Press, 1992): pp 211-239. If you want a LOT MORE detail check out the excellent book by PAUL HEYER, Nature, Human Nature and Society (Greenwood Press, 1982). -- Gar Allen Professor of Biology Washington University Mine Doyran Phd student Political Science SUNY/Albany So what's
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2000 RELEASED TODAY: In March, 226 metropolitan areas reported unemployment rates below the U.S. average (4.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted), while 99 areas registered higher rates. Nineteen metropolitan areas had rates below 2.0 percent, with seven of these located in the Midwest, seven in the South, and four in New England. Of the 10 areas with jobless rates over 10.0 percent, 7 were in California, and 2 were along the Mexican border in other states. There was little change in earnings dispersion during the 1990s, even as wage and employment growth in the highest and lowest paying occupations far outpaced gains in the middle earnings group, according to an article in the March 2000 Monthly Labor Review. "Marked growth in wage and salary employment that took place from 1989 to 1999 in the highest and lowest earnings groups was not accompanied by a rapid rise in earnings. Earnings indeed rose, but only modestly, for both groups," write BLS economists Randy E. Ilg and Steven E. Haugen. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-11, text E-1). The House is expected to take up and approve a unanimously passed Senate bill that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to prevent inclusion of profits from certain employee stock purchase programs in regular rates of pay for purposes of calculating overtime. ... Meanwhile, BLS has taken the next step in its research project on stock options. The bureau is in the middle of the second phase of research that could lead to the inclusion of stock options in its employment cost index data series, which is the government's broadest measure of compensation. In the current phase of research, BLS is surveying 2,000 companies to determine the incidence of stock options offered to both executives and those at other levels of the organization, according to BLS economist Jeffrey Schildkraut. The bureau plans to release highlights from the survey in either late summer or early fall, he said. Schildkraut and BLS economist Beth Levin Crimmel wrote an article in the winter 1999 issue of BLS' Compensation and Working Conditions that describes the outcome of the first phase of the study. That phase involved only 100 companies that were known to offer stock options, with the goal of determining the types of questions to ask in conducting the larger survey currently underway. ... (Deborah Billings in Daily Labor Report, page A-14). The National Association of Purchasing Management's semiannual forecast predicts manufacturing revenues will grow by 5.9 percent and nonmanufacturing revenues will increase by 6.4 percent in the second half of 2000, while employment in both sectors will expand. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-8). The record U.S. economic expansion will continue through 2000, with gains in information technology industries leading the way, according to a report by the Commerce Department and McGraw Hill Cos. ... Information technology accounts for 5 of the 10 manufacturing industries that are expected to grow the fastest in 2000, the report says. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-2). The index of leading economic indicators resumed its upward climb in March, after a temporary lapse the previous month, the Conference Board says. The Conference Board said the leading indicators point to continued economic expansion in 2000 though probably not at the "breakneck pace" of the last 6 months. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1). Rising interest rates, a volatile stock market, and higher gasoline prices were expected to be slowing the American economy by now, especially the highly cyclical auto industry. Yet the stampede into the showrooms continues across the country, with every big domestic and foreign automaker announcing that sales last month exceeded even last year's brisk pace. ... (New York Times, page C2)_The boom in U.S. auto sales rolled on in April, as U.S. consumers cashed in factory incentives and ignored stock market jitters and interest rate pressures. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A3). Sales of new single-family houses soared in March to their second-fastest pace on record, and an index of growth expectations rose, suggesting the record economic expansion still has legs. Sales of new single-family homes unexpectedly rose 4.5 percent in March, after falling 0.6 percent in February. The sales rate was the largest since November 1998. ... The index of leading economic indicators, a gauge of economic performance for the next 6 months, rose 0.1 percent in March after a 0.3 percent decline in February. The gain reflected rising stock prices, low levels of unemployment claims, and higher orders for consumer goods. ... (New York Times, page C7)_New-home sales in March rocketed to their second-highest monthly level of the current expansion, but growth in the overall housing market started to slow amid rising interest rates. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2). The tight labor market may have made it tougher
Re: Re: Darwin's dilemma (fwd)
While John Bellamy Foster acknowledges Darwin's concessions to social Darwinism, the main stress is on the importance of developing a materialist view of nature in defiance of the essentialist and teleological consensus of the mid 1800s. That being said, I agree strongly with Robert Young that social Darwinism has had an unfortunate influence on Marxist thought. In "Marxism and Anthropology", Maurice Bloch states that Karl Kautsky read Herbert Spencer before he read Marx and never seemed to have totally renounced the former, as evidenced by articles written in the German Social Democratic press filled with evolutionist notions inappropriate to Marxism. The same is true of Plekhanov, whose "Materialist Conception of History" tends to treat indigenous peoples like dinosaurs who became extinct because they were ill-adapted to their environment (actually, as Gould points out, dinosaurs were well-adapted to their environment but got creamed by some kind of deus ex machina event, like a comet). The most troubling symptom of this uneasy relationship between Marxism and social Darwinism is the key role played by Lewis Henry Morgan in Marx's Ethnological Notebooks and Engels' Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. While Morgan was sympathetic to the American Indian, he essentially viewed them as dinosaurs. This view led him to become a forceful spokesman for residential schools for the Indians, which were sadistic attempts to "civilize" the Indian. Children were beaten if they spoke their native tongue and forced to do menial work in order to "teach" them about the superior value of wage labor. Hunting and fishing were viewed as barbaric activities. Louis Proyect (The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
On Marx's economic doctrine
II Having recognised that the economic system is the foundation on which the political superstructure is erected, Marx devoted his greatest attention to the study of this economic system. Marx's principal work, Capital, is devoted to a study of the economic system of modern, i.e., capitalist, society. Classical political economy, before Marx, evolved in England, the most developed of the capitalist countries. Adam Smith and David Ricardo, by their investigations of the economic system, laid the foundations of the labour theory of value. Marx continued their work; he provided a proof of the theory and developed it consistently. He showed that the value of every commodity is determined by the quantity of socially necessary labour time spent on its production. Where the bourgeois economists saw a relation between things (the exchange of one commodity for another) Marx revealed a relation between people. The exchange of commodities expresses the connection between individual producers through the market. Money signifies that the connection is becoming closer and closer, inseparably uniting the entire economic life of the individual producers into one whole. Capital signifies a further development of this connection: man's labour-power becomes a commodity. The wage-worker sells his labour-power to the owner of land, factories and instruments of labour. The worker spends one part of the day covering the cost of maintaining himself and his family (wages), while the other part of the day he works without remuneration, creating for the capitalist surplus-value, the source of profit, the source of the wealth of the capitalist class. The doctrine of surplus-value is the corner-stone of Marx's economic theory. Capital, created by the labour of the worker, crushes the worker, ruining small proprietors and creating an army of unemployed. In industry, the victory of large-scale production is immediately apparent, but the same phenomenon is also to be observed in agriculture, where the superiority of large-scale capitalist agriculture is enhanced, the use of machinery increases and the peasant economy, trapped by money-capital, declines and falls into ruin under the burden of its backward technique. The decline of small-scale production assumes different forms in agriculture, but the decline ilself is an indisputable fact. By destroying small-scale production, capital leads to an increase in productivity of labour and to the creation of a monopoly position for the associations of big capitalists. Production itself becomes more and more social -- hundreds of thousands and millions of workers become bound together in a regular economic organism -- but the product of this collective labour is appropriated by a handful of capitalists. Anarchy of production, crises, the furious chase after markets and the insecurity of existence of the mass of the population are intensified. By increasing the dependence of the workers on capilal, the capitalist system creates the great power of united labour. Marx traced the development of capitalism from embryonic commodity economy, from simple exchange, to its highest forms, to large-scale production. And the experience of all capitalist countries, old and new, year by year demonstrates clearly the truth of this Marxian doctrine to increasing numbers of workers. Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labour over capital. III When feudalism was overthrown and "free " capitalist society appeared in the world, it at once became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppression and exploitation of the working people. Various socialist doctrines immediately emerged as a reflection of and protest against this oppression. Early socialism, however, was utopian socialism. It criticised capitalist society, it condemned and damned it, it dreamed of its destruction, it had visions of a better order and endeavoured to convince the rich of the immorality of exploitation. But utopian socialism could not indicate the real solution. It could not explain the real nature of wage-slavery under capitalism, it could not reveal the laws of capitalist develop ment, or show what social force is capable of becoming the creator of a new society. Meanwhile, the stormy revolutions which everywhere in Europe, and especially in France, accompanied the fall of feudalism, of serfdom, more and more clearly revealed the struggle of classes as the basis and the driving force of all development. Not a single victory of political freedom over the feudal class was won except against desperate resistance. Not a single capitalist country evolved on a more or less free and democratic basis except by a life-and-death struggle between the various classes of capitalist society. The genius of Marx lies in his having been
cheers!
Happy birthday, Karl Marx! Happy Cinco de Mayo! Happy Professional Cartoonists' Day! Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://liberalarts.lmu.edu/~JDevine
BLS Daily Report
BLS DAILY REPORT, THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2000 RELEASED TODAY: The seasonally adjusted annual rates of productivity change in the first quarter were 1.8 percent in the business sector and 2.4 percent in the nonfarm business sector. These productivity gains were smaller than the gains of the previous quarter (6.6 percent in the business sector and 6.9 percent in the nonfarm business sector, as revised). Output growth in the first quarter, 6.0 percent in both sectors, slowed somewhat from the rapid fourth-quarter pace, and hours of all persons in the first quarter grew more rapidly. In manufacturing, productivity changes in the first quarter were 6.9 percent in manufacturing, 9.9 percent in durable goods manufacturing, and 2.7 percent in nondurable goods manufacturing. ... Employment grew at a brisk rate, and new orders placed with U.S. nonmanufacturing firms were strong during April, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Purchasing Management. NAPM's nonmanufacturing business activity index increased by 1 percentage point to 65 percent in April. In survey results, the NAPM said that its members expect economic growth to remain vigorous in both the manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors during the second half of this year. About 67 percent of purchasing executives surveyed said they expect business activity to be better or the same as the second half of 1999, which was a boom period for both consumer and business spending. ... (Daily Labor Report, page A-7). Strong economic growth continued in most regions of the country in March and the first half of April, accompanied by more frequent reports of intensifying wage pressures, according to the Federal Reserve's latest "beige book". The majority of the Fed's 12 districts reported strong to moderate growth. Only the Richmond and Chicago districts said some signs indicated that growth had slowed slightly. Tight labor markets were driving up wages in many areas of the country in March and early April, the Fed's economists said. Another economic report, the employment cost index, confirmed that wages were accelerating. In that report, private industry wages grew by 4.2 percent in the year ending in March. ... (Daily Labor Report, page D-1)_The U.S. economy was still growing strongly last month, with shortages of workers intensifying wage pressures but few signs of added inflation outside of the energy area. Consumer spending was strong ... and factories were running near capacity in some areas. ... (Washington Post, page E2)_Interest rates shot higher after the Federal Reserve reported that wages were rising across the country and investors wondered if that news would make the central bank more aggressive in its efforts to slow economic growth. The report on economic conditions in Federal Reserve Districts across the country said that "there were more frequent reports of intensifying wage pressures as shortages of workers persisted in all districts." ... (New York Times, page C8)_The U.S. economy's longest growth streak is continuing, but inflationary pressures are joining the chase. The Federal Reserve's latest regional economic survey found rising wages, higher energy and commodities costs, and strong consumer demand. But competition and productivity gains kept those pressures from generating higher prices for consumers. ... (Wall Street Journal, page A2). In a shift that experts attribute to the changing economy, higher education increasingly is seen as the ticket to the middle class, with 87 percent of Americans saying "a college education is as important as a high school education used to be," a new study has found. Seven years ago, a majority of Americans believed that too many people were going to college rather than directly into technical trades like plumbing or computer repair; now 3 out of 4 think the country could never have too many college graduates. The study shows that 77 percent of Americans believe college is more important now than a decade ago. The project on attitudes about education was financed by three groups that study education policy and conducted by Public Agenda, an organization in New York that conducts research on various issues. It began with telephone interviews of 1,015 adults -- particularly parents -- in December and included discussions with groups in six cities. ... (New York Times, page A21). DUE OUT TOMORROW: The Employment Situation: April 2000 application/ms-tnef
Re: Re: Darwin's dilemma (fwd)
I definetly agree.I think we should get the best out of Darwin to see what is potential for Marxism. Developing a materialist conception of nature is necessary for understanding the "historicity" of human nature. While doing that, however, Marxists should be careful not to assimilate Marx to Darwin. Instead, we should reject Darwin's assumptions about the biological inferiority of blacks and women. I have seen weird books named "Marx and Social Darwinism",which are misguided comparisons of Marx to Darwin for the purposes of Darwinizing Marx in the direction of biological determinism. I don't know Foster in details. I was just wondering about his views on the relationship of Darwin's ideas to the British ruling class of his time (if he has any)... Mine While John Bellamy Foster acknowledges Darwin's concessions to social Darwinism, the main stress is on the importance of developing a materialist view of nature in defiance of the essentialist and teleological consensus of the mid 1800s. That being said, I agree strongly with Robert Young that social Darwinism has had an unfortunate influence on Marxist thought. In "Marxism and Anthropology", Maurice Bloch states that Karl Kautsky read Herbert Spencer before he read Marx and never seemed to have totally renounced the former, as evidenced by articles written in the German Social Democratic press filled with evolutionist notions inappropriate to Marxism. The same is true of Plekhanov, whose "Materialist Conception of History" tends to treat indigenous peoples like dinosaurs who became extinct because they were ill-adapted to their environment (actually, as Gould points out, dinosaurs were well-adapted to their environment but got creamed by some kind of deus ex machina event, like a comet). The most troubling symptom of this uneasy relationship between Marxism and social Darwinism is the key role played by Lewis Henry Morgan in Marx's Ethnological Notebooks and Engels' Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. While Morgan was sympathetic to the American Indian, he essentially viewed them as dinosaurs. This view led him to become a forceful spokesman for residential schools for the Indians, which were sadistic attempts to "civilize" the Indian. Children were beaten if they spoke their native tongue and forced to do menial work in order to "teach" them about the superior value of wage labor. Hunting and fishing were viewed as barbaric activities. Louis Proyect (The Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org)
Query: textbook update
Is there any news about a new edition of UNDERSTANDING CAPITALISM by Bowless and Edwards?
Capital dreams
The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. "Lotteries, Liberty, and Legislatures" BY: LLOYD R. COHEN George Mason Law School Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=210008 Paper ID: George Mason Law Economics Working Paper No. 00-01 Date: February 2000 Contact: LLOYD R. COHEN Email: Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Postal: George Mason Law School 3401 N. Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22201 USA Phone: (703) 993-8048 Paper Requests: Contact Allen Moye, Associate Director for Public Services, George Mason University School of Law Library, 3401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201. Phone:(703)993-8062. Fax:(703) 993-8113. Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ABSTRACT: The central purpose of this paper is to show that lottery play is not economically irrational and uninformed. The paper presents a theory of lottery tickets not as misguided inputs into wealth production as some critics believe but as valuable inputs in creating a sense of open-ended possibility, specifically the possibility of escaping one's current life by acquiring great wealth. In the course of the discussion the claim that the lottery is a regressive tax is investigated and a variety of empirical predictions are generated as to patterns of purchase both across groups and by individuals. Finally the insights gained from the earlier discussion are employed as a springboard to reground the normative use of the assumption of rational utility maximization. JEL Classification: H29 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Grad Schools for Cultural Economics
Dear all, I am currently finishing my studies in International Economics at Portland State University. I would like to pursue graduate studies in Cultural Economics. Unfortunately, this field is not very well known and I haven't found anyone to share my ideas with, although I'm sure they've been talked about before. One of them being that culture is transmitted to a society largely through a political figure or ideology and not as Marx asserts, the mode of production. I would greatly appreciate any feedback and critique on this, as well as suggestions for a graduate school here in the US for this type of study. Thank you, Fumie Hayashi Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
Little interest among Chinese students one year after NATO bombing(fwd)
Friday, May 5 10:28 AM SGT Little interest among Chinese students one year after NATO bombing BEIJING, May 5 (AFP) - For many students who took part in the violent anti-US protests after the NATO bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade anger has given way to study, job hunting and the dream of living abroad. The atmosphere on the campus of Beijing's People's University during this week's MayDay holiday week was relaxed and students expressed little interest and almost no anger over the May 7, 1999 bombing. "As far as I know there are no activities on our campus planned to commemorate the anniversary of the bombing," student He Beifang told AFP. Students studying international affairs or foreign languages might have special discussion sessions, but few students were thinking about the bombing despite the tremendous anger they unleashed last year, he said. "Of course we were very angry about it last year, but the US paid compensation to China and to the families of the victims, so right now I don't think many students are angry about it," said Wei, an English major. "We still don't believe the US explanation that the bombing was a mistake, so it is still up to the US to give China a satisfactory explanation," she said. In the aftermath of the bombing which killed three Chinese journalists, Chinese students erupted into four days of angry protests throughout China -- smashing windows at the US Embassy in Beijing and torching the US Consulate in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Police largely declined to intervene as students rained stones, bottles and paint bombs on the US missions and chanted anti-American slogans. Wei and He said they attended the huge demonstrations, but denied the protests only occured because the government allowed them to. "Yes, the government and university leaders encouraged us to go down to protest at the US Embassy, but everyone was really angry so you can't say that it was only the government who organized the protests," Wei said. The protests were the biggest in China since the six-week-long 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests which were crushed by the Chinese military. Other students said the granting of permanent normal trade relationsto China by the US Congress in a vote later this month, would go a long way towards showing that the United States was not trying to contain China, but was willing to work with China. "PNTR will show that the US wants to work with China and stop using power politics to interfere in China's internal affairs," said a law student from Hebei University who was visiting the People's University. "A lot of students were happy to see the statements by Vice President (Al) Gore that supported PNTR and improved relations between China and the US," he said. In a foreign policy speech on Monday, Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee in this year's elections, called China a "vital partner" and pledged to build stronger relations. His statements were widely reported in the Chinese press, as were statements made Tuesday by President Bill Clinton which said failure to pass PNTR would be "very unwise and precarious" from a national security point of view. With China's probable entry into the World Trade Organisation, most students looked forward to better ties with the West and many shied away from discussing politics. "Students here are only concerned about finding good jobs after college, so we concentrate on our studies and pay little attention to politics," one student said. "I would think that every college student in China studies English and many are hoping to go abroad to study," he said. "Study in the US is still the first choice." The US Central Intelligence Agency took the blame for the NATO strike by saying out-dated maps resulted in laser guided bombs hitting the Chinese embassy instead of a nearby Yugoslav military depot. China still insists the attack was deliberate.
Re: Capital dreams
It would seem that lotteries have joined religion and tv as "opiates of the masses." Rod Hay Michael Perelman wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. "Lotteries, Liberty, and Legislatures" BY: LLOYD R. COHEN George Mason Law School Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=210008 Paper ID: George Mason Law Economics Working Paper No. 00-01 Date: February 2000 Contact: LLOYD R. COHEN Email: Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Postal: George Mason Law School 3401 N. Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22201 USA Phone: (703) 993-8048 Paper Requests: Contact Allen Moye, Associate Director for Public Services, George Mason University School of Law Library, 3401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201. Phone:(703)993-8062. Fax:(703) 993-8113. Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ABSTRACT: The central purpose of this paper is to show that lottery play is not economically irrational and uninformed. The paper presents a theory of lottery tickets not as misguided inputs into wealth production as some critics believe but as valuable inputs in creating a sense of open-ended possibility, specifically the possibility of escaping one's current life by acquiring great wealth. In the course of the discussion the claim that the lottery is a regressive tax is investigated and a variety of empirical predictions are generated as to patterns of purchase both across groups and by individuals. Finally the insights gained from the earlier discussion are employed as a springboard to reground the normative use of the assumption of rational utility maximization. JEL Classification: H29 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Grad Schools for Cultural Economics (fwd)
Friend! Personally, I have not heard of a grad school specialized in cultural economics. I think I understand what you mean, but this field is pretty unclear to me now. This is besides the point though. I suspect you mean "cultural studies" rather than "cultural economics". Economic departments in the US are too mainstream to afford such connotations. Instead, what you can do is to apply inter-diciplinary studies that is a combination of one or two diciplines such as economics, politics, sociology and history. There are schools specialized in political economy like SUNY/ Stony Brook, University of Colorado at Boulder (international political economy), SUNY/Binghamton (economic history and sociology particularly. See the Fernand Braudel Center), U Mass Amherst (econ is good I heard). I strongly advise you to apply Canada too. Canadians are good at radical issues. Toronto and York have *very very* strong programs in women's studies that must include cultural studies as well. I am hundred percent sure that York's is inter-diciplinary, so check out. The worst thing with Canada is that if you are applying for a funding, their funding mechanism is somewhat weird. The conservaties in the federal government cut off international students' money sometime ago. Why don't you try British fellows too? SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies)is a very well known and established institution. They teach topics like post-colonial studies, colonialism and development, third world countries, cultural issues, etc.. Stuart Hall is doing cultural/media studies some place in Britian I don't remember now.. My advise to you as a graduate student: Instead of applying to economics departments directly either find 1)"heterodox economics" programs or try 2) other social science diciplines. The closest one to economics is "political economy", and the only place you can find this are political science departments, broadly speaking, not economics. Economic departments are heavily dominated by classsical economics especially of neo-liberal type, and rececently by trends like game theory. don't allow yourself brainswashed; try to find some radical places, and do not go with sexy names. You can check out the faculty interests of the above mentioned on their web pages.. that is all i can tell! good luck.. Mine Doyran Phd Student Political Science SUNY/Albany Dear all, I am currently finishing my studies in International Economics at Portland State University. I would like to pursue graduate studies in Cultural Economics. Unfortunately, this field is not very well known and I haven't found anyone to share my ideas with, although I'm sure they've been talked about before. One of them being that culture is transmitted to a society largely through a political figure or ideology and not as Marx asserts, the mode of production. I would greatly appreciate any feedback and critique on this, as well as suggestions for a graduate school here in the US for this type of study. Thank you, Fumie Hayashi Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
Re: Capital dreams
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Rod Hay It would seem that lotteries have joined religion and tv as "opiates of the masses." So by the logic of this paper can the Left write papers upholding the virtues of the Gulag as a promoter of freedom in its promise of eventual release from torture and work? I love the "sense of open-ended possibility" as utility maximization. Brave New World's "soma" becomes the ultimate in social utility, which of course brings us to the obvious additional conservative argument for promoting rampant drug use as rational utility maximization - hell, what else brings such a complete sense of "open-ended possibility" as a hallucinogenic? Can we file this paper under the category of the idiocy of contemporary conservative thinkers? -- Nathan Newman Rod Hay Michael Perelman wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. "Lotteries, Liberty, and Legislatures" BY: LLOYD R. COHEN George Mason Law School Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=210008 Paper ID: George Mason Law Economics Working Paper No. 00-01 Date: February 2000 Contact: LLOYD R. COHEN Email: Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Postal: George Mason Law School 3401 N. Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22201 USA Phone: (703) 993-8048 Paper Requests: Contact Allen Moye, Associate Director for Public Services, George Mason University School of Law Library, 3401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22201. Phone:(703)993-8062. Fax:(703) 993-8113. Mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ABSTRACT: The central purpose of this paper is to show that lottery play is not economically irrational and uninformed. The paper presents a theory of lottery tickets not as misguided inputs into wealth production as some critics believe but as valuable inputs in creating a sense of open-ended possibility, specifically the possibility of escaping one's current life by acquiring great wealth. In the course of the discussion the claim that the lottery is a regressive tax is investigated and a variety of empirical predictions are generated as to patterns of purchase both across groups and by individuals. Finally the insights gained from the earlier discussion are employed as a springboard to reground the normative use of the assumption of rational utility maximization. JEL Classification: H29 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://Batoche.co-ltd.net/ 52 Eby Street South Kitchener, Ontario N2G 3L1 Canada
Re: Capital dreams
Michael- Do you use some kind of voice recognition software? I've noticed that your typos are often homonyms or near-homonyms. Mat Michael wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society.
Re: Re: Capital dreams
guilty as charged. sorry. Mathew Forstater wrote: Michael- Do you use some kind of voice recognition software? I've noticed that your typos are often homonyms or near-homonyms. Mat Michael wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
(no subject)
Re: Re: Re: Capital dreams
no need to apologize! it appears to work pretty doggone well! as a two finger typist, I should look into it-- it could save on my fingertips! -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, May 05, 2000 3:25 PM Subject: [PEN-L:18557] Re: Re: Capital dreams guilty as charged. sorry. Mathew Forstater wrote: Michael- Do you use some kind of voice recognition software? I've noticed that your typos are often homonyms or near-homonyms. Mat Michael wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Re: Re: Re: Re: Capital dreams
Michael, I'd be interested in your experiences with voice recognition software. How well it works might eventually make a big change in education by breaking the illusion that "skill in writing" equals "general intelligence." I'm really confident that a huge amount of what intellectuals regard as mass illiteracy is in fact some kind of mechanical problem encountered by huge numbers of people in keeping their thoughts during the process of transferring them to page or screen. Voice recognition software could break that. Carrol Mathew Forstater wrote: no need to apologize! it appears to work pretty doggone well! as a two finger typist, I should look into it-- it could save on my fingertips! -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, May 05, 2000 3:25 PM Subject: [PEN-L:18557] Re: Re: Capital dreams guilty as charged. sorry. Mathew Forstater wrote: Michael- Do you use some kind of voice recognition software? I've noticed that your typos are often homonyms or near-homonyms. Mat Michael wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
RE: Re: Re: Capital dreams
So people walking past your office hear you talking to yourself . . . ? Or do you dictate your e-mail into one computer while you're typing your next book on another? mbs guilty as charged. sorry. Mathew Forstater wrote: Michael- Do you use some kind of voice recognition software? I've noticed that your typos are often homonyms or near-homonyms. Mat Michael wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
Capital reality
Better than the lottery: In the past week there have been two reports of how the CEO's who make the tough downsizing decisions have a different set of rules for themselves: And finally tonight, a severance package that is leaving every failed executive in America salivating, and may leave shareholders foaming at the mouth. Jill Barad, who stepped down as chief executive of Mattel back in February, received a going-away present so rich it's almost stunning. It's worth $50 million and it breaks down like this: Mattel will make a $26 million one-time payout. It will also forgive a home loan and pay for her tax bill. The total there is $12 million. And she will receive a retirement package also worth $12 million, payments of $106,000 a month for the next 10 years. And here's the kicker, she gets to hold on to options to buy six million shares, which could bring a huge windfall if the next regime turns the company around. As for that stock price, when Barad took the reins at Mattel at the start of 1997, the stock was worth $29. It rose to a high of nearly 47 in 1998. It closed today at 12 1/8. Imagine what she might have received upon leaving if the company had done well. For the second time this week news of a failed executive walking away with a huge parting gift. Two day's after word that Mattel had handed Jill Barad a $50 million severance package, Conseco unveiled an even richer deal for chief executive Stephen Hilbert. Hilbert, who resigned last week in the face of huge losses and a collapsing stock price, got a $72.5 million going-away present. Under terms of his contract, Hilbert received five times his annual $1 million salary and five times his annual bonus, which comes out to $67.5 million. But he went home with only 49 after repaying a company loan. Now, it's been a terrible couple of years for Conseco, after the disastrous purchase of Green Tree Financial. The stock is down nearly 90 percent from more than a 50 in 1998 to just over six today. And Conseco found itself on even shakier financial footing today as Standard Poor's cut its debt to junk bond status.
Query
Re balance of payments etc. In the '60s and '70s, there would always be a distinction made between balance of trade (which was positive for U.S.) and balance of payments (which was negative). Is that distinction no longer of any importance? And was it ever? Carrol
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Capital dreams
It's better than typing. I just got a new computer, which I hope will make it much better, but it requires proofing -- which is hard because the words are all spelled correctly -- they are just the wrong words. Carrol Cox wrote: Michael, I'd be interested in your experiences with voice recognition software. How well it works might eventually make a big change in education by breaking the illusion that "skill in writing" equals "general intelligence." I'm really confident that a huge amount of what intellectuals regard as mass illiteracy is in fact some kind of mechanical problem encountered by huge numbers of people in keeping their thoughts during the process of transferring them to page or screen. Voice recognition software could break that. Carrol Mathew Forstater wrote: no need to apologize! it appears to work pretty doggone well! as a two finger typist, I should look into it-- it could save on my fingertips! -Original Message- From: Michael Perelman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, May 05, 2000 3:25 PM Subject: [PEN-L:18557] Re: Re: Capital dreams guilty as charged. sorry. Mathew Forstater wrote: Michael- Do you use some kind of voice recognition software? I've noticed that your typos are often homonyms or near-homonyms. Mat Michael wrote: The summary of this article suggests that it throws some light on the nature of dreams of well in a capitalist society. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
