Re: Brazil: the view from the WB
This from the World Bank is interesting because Brazil seems determined to roll back the privatization of electric power by opening the generation market to the publically owned utility. The new president of Eletrobras has complained of the "destatization" of the neo-liberal agenda -- and talks of the symbolism of ending the constraint on government investment. This while the staffers at the WB still publish "studies" about how (not whether) privatization can work. Studies which are unaware of much of the literature. Maybe the word hasn't trickled down yet. I'm going to Brazil in a couple of weeks and will report in late Januray on what I hope is the unwinding of the privatization rules. Gene Coyle Eubulides wrote: The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com Why eyes are on Brazil David de Ferranti and Vinod Thomas IHT Wednesday, December 24, 2003 A new model of growth BRASILIA Call it the Brasília consensus. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who began his term as president of Brazil on the first of this year, is building a new development model to replace the late, unlamented Washington consensus - the vision of development that emerged from Western advisers in the 80's and 90's. This new strategy is that economic and social progress are inseparable. This may sound like no more than common sense. Yet, following the conventional wisdom of many economists, developing countries for years have had to endure austerity plans before seeking improvements in basic living conditions. Desperately needed advances in health, education and employment were all too often slowed in an efforts to pay down debt or reach economic growth targets. Can Brazil's new model work? Can a Latin American country progress economically while simultaneously investing in the welfare of its people? In Brazil, early indications are positive. The government has protected health, education and other vital programs from financing reductions, and it is taking important steps to strengthen the impact of a cash transfer program for the poor, preventing serious deterioration in conditions during a year of slow economic growth. But at the same time, President da Silva's administration has also succeeded in reassuring international markets that it is committed to macroeconomic stability and improvements in efficiency. Since the administration took over, the spread between the interest rates on Brazilian debt and U.S. Treasury debt, a key measure of economic confidence, has shrunk by two-thirds, while domestic interest rates are down more than one-third. The value of Brazilian currency has risen strongly, and the public debt has stabilized in relation to GDP. There is still, of course, a long way to go. For all of its clout as the world's ninth-largest economy, Brazil remains among the world's most unequal countries in income distribution. Given the implied social disparities, it is easy to see why a lifelong social activist who reached the presidency might have been tempted to leap into crash programs of redistributing wealth. Instead, the administration is moving carefully and systematically to expand social assistance while making it more efficient and better targeted. This is not glamorous work, yet it promises long-lasting results. Goals are specific and the level of achievement will be measurable. Examples are providing potable water to 3.7 million people in Brazil's poorest Northeast region, building 1.2 million housing units for the poor, forming 30,000 family health teams to deliver essential comprehensive care to those in need. And the government is looking at expanding a school financing program that already helped get most of Brazil's children into primary schools, so that it will also cover secondary education - a step toward a more educated work force. President da Silva has been able to build on a sturdy foundation. The previous administration devised the cash transfers and managed to tame inflation, which had been was a millstone around the necks of millions of Brazilians. The new government is now dealing with another longstanding problem - extraordinarily generous and costly pensions for civil servants. Public employees are not pleased by plans for change. But the administration is managing to maintain the bulk of its support from ordinary Brazilians, as well as from investors and business leaders at home and abroad. This is a critical achievement in a region marked by political instability and the sharpening of class tensions. The fortunes of Brazil's development strategy are not exactly headline news in the industrialized world. But make no mistake, throughout the global South, all eyes are on Brazil. Achieving measurable gains in health, education, employment and government accountability, while accelerating socially and environmentally sustainable growth, is the hope of the early 21st century. Success for the Brasília consensus would affect development efforts everywhere. Fortunately, indicators so far are pos
Re: dissatisfied
Me too. Bye. - Original Message - From: "Michael Perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 10:05 PM Subject: [PEN-L] dissatisfied > A number of valued, longstanding participants have recently unsubbed. At > the same time, a few people have been dominating the list. The threads > that have occupied the most bandwith have been back and forth affairs that > are repetitious. Sabri's 2 posts are exceptions. They elicited no > replies. > > The discussion a couple of weeks ago regarding the falling rate of profit > may have been technical, but I thought that they were very informational. > What can we do to boost the signal to noise ratio. > > I will probably only be able to monitor the list sporadically for the next > couple of weeks. So, happy holidays and joyous revolution. > -- > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Chico, CA 95929 > > Tel. 530-898-5321 > E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
Re: The coming global rebalancing
The Roach article seems quite good at identifying some of the international weaknesses. I would add another that cannot be fixed by repricing: global capital is so fluid that a flutter in one market can set of panics in others. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Brazil: the view from the WB
The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com Why eyes are on Brazil David de Ferranti and Vinod Thomas IHT Wednesday, December 24, 2003 A new model of growth BRASILIA Call it the Brasília consensus. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who began his term as president of Brazil on the first of this year, is building a new development model to replace the late, unlamented Washington consensus - the vision of development that emerged from Western advisers in the 80's and 90's. This new strategy is that economic and social progress are inseparable. This may sound like no more than common sense. Yet, following the conventional wisdom of many economists, developing countries for years have had to endure austerity plans before seeking improvements in basic living conditions. Desperately needed advances in health, education and employment were all too often slowed in an efforts to pay down debt or reach economic growth targets. Can Brazil's new model work? Can a Latin American country progress economically while simultaneously investing in the welfare of its people? In Brazil, early indications are positive. The government has protected health, education and other vital programs from financing reductions, and it is taking important steps to strengthen the impact of a cash transfer program for the poor, preventing serious deterioration in conditions during a year of slow economic growth. But at the same time, President da Silva's administration has also succeeded in reassuring international markets that it is committed to macroeconomic stability and improvements in efficiency. Since the administration took over, the spread between the interest rates on Brazilian debt and U.S. Treasury debt, a key measure of economic confidence, has shrunk by two-thirds, while domestic interest rates are down more than one-third. The value of Brazilian currency has risen strongly, and the public debt has stabilized in relation to GDP. There is still, of course, a long way to go. For all of its clout as the world's ninth-largest economy, Brazil remains among the world's most unequal countries in income distribution. Given the implied social disparities, it is easy to see why a lifelong social activist who reached the presidency might have been tempted to leap into crash programs of redistributing wealth. Instead, the administration is moving carefully and systematically to expand social assistance while making it more efficient and better targeted. This is not glamorous work, yet it promises long-lasting results. Goals are specific and the level of achievement will be measurable. Examples are providing potable water to 3.7 million people in Brazil's poorest Northeast region, building 1.2 million housing units for the poor, forming 30,000 family health teams to deliver essential comprehensive care to those in need. And the government is looking at expanding a school financing program that already helped get most of Brazil's children into primary schools, so that it will also cover secondary education - a step toward a more educated work force. President da Silva has been able to build on a sturdy foundation. The previous administration devised the cash transfers and managed to tame inflation, which had been was a millstone around the necks of millions of Brazilians. The new government is now dealing with another longstanding problem - extraordinarily generous and costly pensions for civil servants. Public employees are not pleased by plans for change. But the administration is managing to maintain the bulk of its support from ordinary Brazilians, as well as from investors and business leaders at home and abroad. This is a critical achievement in a region marked by political instability and the sharpening of class tensions. The fortunes of Brazil's development strategy are not exactly headline news in the industrialized world. But make no mistake, throughout the global South, all eyes are on Brazil. Achieving measurable gains in health, education, employment and government accountability, while accelerating socially and environmentally sustainable growth, is the hope of the early 21st century. Success for the Brasília consensus would affect development efforts everywhere. Fortunately, indicators so far are positive, pointing to success and to a path toward greater equality and well-being. David de Ferranti is the World Bank's vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Vinod Thomas is country director for Brazil.
Re: dissatisfied
Michael Perelman wrote: What can we do to boost the signal to noise ratio. i suggest a 'studs of pen-l' holiday calendar featuring luminaries such as jimD and ianM is provocative swimwear. and a total ban on future beatles lyrics posts by jurrian [sp?]. that should do the trick. ;-) --ravi (apologies, best wishes, and peace to all)
Japan: trade surplus
Trade surplus climbed 11.3% in November The Japan Times: Dec. 23, 2003 Japan's trade surplus rose 11.3 percent in November from a year earlier to 990.2 billion yen, marking a fifth straight month of increase as a drop in imports outpaced a decline in exports, the Finance Ministry said Monday. Imports slid 5.2 percent to 3.56 trillion yen, dropping for the first time in 15 months. Exports meanwhile fell 2.0 percent for the first drop in five months, to 4.55 trillion yen. Exports to the United States shrank 21.1 percent to 1.09 trillion yen, showing the biggest percentage drop on record, and down for the 11th consecutive month. The ministry began compiling data in the current form in 1979. A contributing factor was the drop in automobile exports to the U.S. as Japanese companies continued to shift production to their factories there. The surge in the yen was behind the fall in exports, a ministry official said. The dollar averaged 109.18 yen in November, down 12.2 percent from a year earlier, when it averaged 122.52 yen. Imports from the U.S. fell 9.7 percent to 541.6 billion yen, the first drop in two months. As a result, the trade surplus with the U.S. shrank 29.8 percent to 548.3 billion yen, down for the 11th month in a row. Junji Ota, an economist at Okasan Economic Research Institute Co., said the drop in exports to the U.S. in November was not a source of major concern for the nation's overall exports, the driving force of its recovery. "This shows that the shift in production to local facilities is progressing, so it is not necessarily a reason to be pessimistic," he said. But the rise in the yen since autumn could push down export figures in the year ahead, he said. "For this year, the figures will not be so bad, helped by the recovery trend in the global economy," he said. "But the impact of the yen's appreciation may appear in the figures from early next year." The surplus with the rest of Asia rose 63.1 percent to 513.7 billion yen. Both exports and imports to the region rose at a slower pace than in recent months. Exports to Asia rose 10.6 percent to 2.16 trillion yen, up for the 21st month in a row, led by brisk demand for parts for audiovisual equipment and other electronic goods. Imports from Asia edged up 0.5 percent to 1.65 trillion yen, for the 15th consecutive month of expansion. Among the major items that grew were imports of video games produced in Japanese companies' plants in the region. The surplus with the European Union fell 12.2 percent, the first drop in five months, to 196.9 billion yen. Exports to the 15-nation EU fell for the first time in 18 months, down 1.9 percent to 676.8 billion yen, reflecting a shift in production of video games from domestic facilities to overseas plants. Imports from the EU rose for the first time in two months, by 3.0 percent to 479.8 billion yen, on increased imports of Japanese automobiles produced in Britain.
privatization onslaught
Hardy, Michael. 2003. Study Finds $70 Billion in Possible Outsourcing Federal Computer Week (18 December). The government's push to open federal jobs to competition could open as much as $70 billion outsourcing opportunities to private firms, but lingering uncertainties on the final version of the rules make it more difficult to predict, according to a new report from research firm Input. Researchers considered the number of jobs that could be outsourced -- officials have estimated that almost 900,000 federal jobs could be suitable for outsourcing -- and Bush administration officials have said they want agencies to open half of those to competition by September 2004. Based on those figures, Input calculates that competitive sourcing could bring up to $70 billion to vendors, including up to $5 billion for information technology companies, if all the potential jobs are outsourced. According to Input, the chief unknown factor is in the omnibus spending bill being debated in Congress. Although members rebuffed many legislative efforts to forestall competitive sourcing altogether, the omnibus bill -- created when Congress combined several appropriations bills into one -- will create several sets of standards if passed as written. It includes different rules for different agencies covered under the omnibus, and some agencies are covered by other bills. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901
dissatisfied
A number of valued, longstanding participants have recently unsubbed. At the same time, a few people have been dominating the list. The threads that have occupied the most bandwith have been back and forth affairs that are repetitious. Sabri's 2 posts are exceptions. They elicited no replies. The discussion a couple of weeks ago regarding the falling rate of profit may have been technical, but I thought that they were very informational. What can we do to boost the signal to noise ratio. I will probably only be able to monitor the list sporadically for the next couple of weeks. So, happy holidays and joyous revolution. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Scriptures
In a message dated 12/23/03 4:44:53 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Well functioning economy based on a variety of property forms? That's nonsense. Property forms are congealed products of the social organization of labor. Comment At this juncture of history the idea that an economy can function well based on a variety of forms of property is no longer a theoretical question. If the property form is not the problem then what is? The property form that underlay the current organization of social labor and labor power has perhaps 4 billion people on earth living below the margin and billions absolutely destitute. The great day of reckoning grows closer in People's China. Reproduction for export on the basis of reproduction for the sake of expanded value - maximum profits, drives the cost and price of labor power down as the technological revolution also squeeze more and more human labor out of the production process. And drive the cost of labor power down. The cheapening of the price of labor power and its _expression_ in the price of commodities is best witnessed in the proliferation of the "Dollar Stores" in America and Canada. The unevenness of this process is that the falling price of labor power and commodities is falling at a greater velocity than the wages paid the upper strata of the working class. Good times for the few is horrible times for the multitudes. Melvin P.
Re: Scriptures
We don't need this kind of exchange!! On Wed, Dec 24, 2003 at 02:27:17AM +0100, Jurriaan Bendien wrote: > You are boring with your "impulse to expansion". > Well functioning economy based on a variety of property forms? That's nonsense. > > That shows how much you know about it. > > J. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Scriptures
What you don't know about it, Juriaan, is that there are significant debates and arguments going on at every level of the CCP about these social changes, and there is a considerable left wing which cannot reconcile the expanding capitalism with the historical allegiance of the party to Marx and collectivized property. This disagreement and opposition isn't a well kept secret; it seems even the Christian Science Monitor has bothered to pay attention to the discussions going on inside the CCP and the country rather than search through texts for quotes. My knowledge of the disagreements comes from US individuals (members of Marxist organizations) invited by representatives of the CCP to analyze the collapse of the USSR and its meaning for China's transformation. dms - Original Message - From: Jurriaan Bendien To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 8:27 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] Scriptures You are boring with your "impulse to expansion". Well functioning economy based on a variety of property forms? That's nonsense. That shows how much you know about it. J.
Re: Scriptures
You are boring with your "impulse to expansion". Well functioning economy based on a variety of property forms? That's nonsense. That shows how much you know about it. J.
Re: Scriptures
First, the CSM is not quoting Marx, rather it is making an assertion as to a fundamental of Marx's theory. Of course, Marx offered no such "theory" except his analysis of capital and its immanent critique, i.e. revolution. However, the CSM is a bit closer to the spirit and quality of Marx's work than JB would like, or like us, to believe. Since wealth in the system Marx was analyzing was based on exchange value, and exchange value was the product and producer of the social relation where production was owned, was private, and labor was organized as wage-labor, then it is truly essential that the revolution's state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, eliminate that social relation, that form of property, those private means. And especially in land. A quick look at the recent history of the former USSR, Poland, and former Comecon states should prove just how destructive enshrining private ownership of land is for the general social welfare, the equality of those shared needs-- like food. As is always the case, law follows the economy, and this constitutional change only codifies what has been ongoing in China since 1985 (and before. I would argue that the movement of China more definitively into the world markets was the result of the success, Mao's success, with the cultural revolution.) The rural economy in China, its social organization, has just about been shattered by the ongoing economic transformation; this process started years ago with increases in taxes on collective and communal agricultural production, and the diminuation of social opportunities for education and health care. Unemployment, real unemployment, the unofficial kind, is estimated at 175-200 million people, the overwhelming bulk in the rural areas, which is to be expected since the population is overwhelmingly tied to the land. Whether the Chinese ever stopped trading is not the issue. Since the 1980s China has received 500 billion dollars in foreign direct investment-- this investment precipitates, requires, tremendous upheaval and reorganization of the system of landed property-- ain't no two ways about it-- because, at the same time as capital disemploys millions of workers, it requires access to millions and millions more in its impulse to expansion, whether or not the impulse is fulfilled. The Chinese government has no advantage in this, no more than the government of the former USSR, of Poland, had. Well functioning economy based on a variety of property forms? That's nonsense. Property forms are congealed products of the social organization of labor. Capitalist property, private ownership of land, is the ownership of production-- and production only functions on the basis of wage-labor, or labor forms presented in the market as sharing the in the production of value by wage labor. JB never tires of telling us he's no Marxist. Absolutely. dms
Scripture lessons from the Christian Science Monitor
"The move [for legally sanctioned private property rights] comes 25 years to the month after China began its long march toward a market economy (see opinion). The wording simply states that "private property obtained legally shall not be violated," and that it is "on an equal footing with public property." A compliant legislature is expected to approve the measure in March. But those words were a difficult step for a party whose authority has long rested on the theory of Karl Marx that the state must eliminate all private means for creating wealth - especially land - in building an egalitarian society." Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1223/p10s02-comv.html Can anybody refer me to any text where Karl Marx said that "that the state must eliminate all private means for creating wealth - especially land - in building an egalitarian society" ? He never said it, in fact he talked much more radically about the gradual reduction of governmental power as producers and consumers took it upon themselves to regulate their own economic life directly. We must be dealing here with the hostility of a frustrated cleric against Marx. Hal Draper used to say that Marx's writings were the most frequently misquoted in history, apart from the Bible (giving rise to Derrida's suggestion that a book can be read any way you like). So le's hear what Marx - usually very reluctant to pronounce on the future course of world history, unlike postmodernists like Fukuyama and neoliberals believing in primitive market magic - had to say in his own time, criticising the Gotha programme of the German Social Democratic Workers Party in 1875 in some notes: "What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. (...) But these defects are inevitable in the first phase of communist society as it is when it has just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society. Right can never be higher than the economic structure of society and its cultural development conditioned thereby. In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly -- only then then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!". And more sharply, in his letter to the editor of the Otyecestvenniye Zapisky in November 1877: [my critic] feels himself obliged to metamorphose my historical sketch of the genesis of capitalism in Western Europe into an historico-philosophic theory of the marche generale imposed by fate upon every people, whatever the historic circumstances in which it finds itself, in order that it may ultimately arrive at the form of economy which will ensure, together with the greatest expansion of the productive powers of social labour, the most complete development of man. But I beg his pardon. (He is both honouring and shaming me too much.) Let us take an example. In several parts of Capital, I allude to the fate which overtook the plebeians of ancient Rome. They were originally free peasants, each cultivating his own piece of land on his own account. In the course of Roman history they were expropriated. The same movement which divorced them from their means of production and subsistence involved the formation not only of big landed property but also of big money capital. And so one fine morning there were to be found on the one hand free men, stripped of everything except their labour power, and on the other, in order to exploit this labour, those who held all the acquired wealth in possession. What happened? The Roman proletarians became, not wage labourers but a mob of do-nothings more abject than the former "poor whites" in the southern country of the United States, and alongside of them there developed a mode of production which was not capitalist but dependent upon slavery. Thus events strikingly analogous but taking place in different historic surroundings led to totally different results. By studying each of these forms of evolution separately and then comparing them one can easily find the clue to this phenomenon, but one will never arrive there by the universal passport of a general historico-philosophical theory, the supreme virtue of which consists in being super-historical." These days, of course, expropriation can occur in the bat of an eyelid. Point is this - Marx
Re: global imbalances
A friend asked me to forward the below. Joanna "For what it s worth, I think this debate overlooks a critical consideration: Europe and Japan are wealthy countries that have dragged their feet endlessly on reforms, whereas China is still a very poor country that has been aggressive in embracing reforms. Why should China be called on to compensate for adjustments that Europe and Japan are unwilling to undertake? " Yes, the reactionary "reforms" comprised under the misnomered terms "neoliberalism" and "globalization" are at the crux of the extreme financial distortions, but Roachs' ideological blinders prevent him from seeing this connection. So, Roach can't see that it is precisely to the extent that Europe and Japan have _not_ enacted "reform" that they have remained "wealthy" (which does not mean they aren't trying to 'reform' - they certainly are, but more slowly), which in turn enables them, precisely, to shoulder more of the burden of the dislocations. The US, on the other hand, as the epicenter and originator of the economic reaction, is predictably also the source of the global financial imbalances, as well as the locus for the concentration of the most extreme financial contradictions. It also follows that the more "progress" "reform", makes in Europe and Japan, the less able will they be to maintaind the burden, resultin in even more generalized financial instability. The result is that Roach can see no "solution" to the "global labor arbitrage" problem, meaning that even if there is a "soft" resolution of the financial imbalances via gradual dollar depreciation, there won't be much of a productive, well-paying jobs recovery. But what else would one expect from a deeply (and I do mean DEEPLY, DEEPLY) reactionay political economics that would have made Hjalmar Schacht - the first Economics Minister in the early years of the Nazi regime - proud. Schacht and Nazi military financial Keynesianism was the real forerunner and model for "neoliberalism", which is why this term is a complete misnomer. There is nothing "liberal" about it at all - Schact and Nazi economics, which is best described as the attempt to always ride the crest of the swelling chaos of capitalism, rather than to attempt a "resolution" - were the true pioneers of our own time. -Brad [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: nano-dirigisme
Michael, The concern about nanotech is well-placed. For more info, see the piece below from Rachel's Environment & Health News, part two of a three-part series. Seth Re: nano-dirigisme by Michael Perelman 23 December 2003 Nanotech. also has some environmentalist concerned. Most biological systems, including our own, may not be prepared to deal with such small objects. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Revolution [in science and technology] Part 2 PETER MONTAGUE / Rachel's Environment & Health News n.773, (published 15aug03) 10jul03 [Part 1] In this series we are describing an on-rushing revolution in science and engineering, created by the convergence of four technologies: biotechnology, information science, cognitive science, and nanotechnology (nanotech). The National Science Foundation (NSF) refers to all this as nano-bio-info-cogno science, or NBIC for short.[1,2] See Rachel's #772. Here we continue describing the newest of these four technologies, nanotech, which is the science and engineering of materials measuring less than 100 nanometers (100 billionths of a meter) in size, far smaller than the eye can see. The U.S. government created a National Nanotech Initiative just 3 years ago, which now funds nanotech research to the tune of $700 million per year, about a third of that going to the Pentagon. NSF predicts that nanotechnology will be a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S. by 2015, just 12 years from now.[3] This revolution is upon us, though most of us haven't a clue it is happening, or even what it is. In newspapers, the "big debate" about nanotech revolves around a theory known as "gray goo," proposed a few years ago by nanotech enthusiast K. Eric Drexler.[4] Drexler suggested that the future of nanotech lies with nano-sized robots, which, under software control, will manufacture useful things, including copies of themselves. Drexler named these nanobots "assemblers," and he suggested that vast armies of assemblers under software control would provide the basis for a household appliance that could manufacture anything it was instructed to manufacture -- a Rolex watch or a filet mignon, essentially fulfilling all of humanity's needs and wants, dirt cheap. Drexler also calculated that, if one assembler took 1000 seconds to make a copy of itself, then self-replicating assemblers, gone haywire, could cover planet earth with a gray goo of assemblers within 72 hours, quickly ending life as we know it. There is even a fancy scientific name for the gray goo hypothesis, "global ecophagy." Ecophagy means "earth-eating." Drexler's self-replicating assembler seems far-fetched at best. Several Nobel prize winners have gone out of their way to debunk Drexler's dream machine, saying it can't work because it violates known laws of chemistry and physics.[5] However, no one claims that all the laws of physics or chemistry are fully understood, so there's always wiggle room for speculation. Despite critiques of the gray goo scenario from prestigious quarters, the federally-funded nanotech research community has been unable to dispel the specter of a world badly damaged, if not destroyed, by nanotech. No one seems to doubt that nanotech science and engineering hold great promise for churning the economy through industrial innovation and -- not incidentally -- for the accumulation of vast wealth by successful entrepreneurs. But nagging doubts about the dark side persist, partly fueled by the factual history of earlier government-subsidized technologies. ** Nuclear-powered electric plants were promised to produce "electricity too cheap to meter,"[6] but in fact they produced expensive electricity, the ever-present threat of catastrophic accidents, continuous low-level exposure of workers and neighbors to low levels of radioactivity at every point in the nuclear fuel cycle, an extremely long-lived (and so-far-unsolved) problem of radioactive wastes, and the most intractable problem of all -- the threat of use of nuclear bombs by terrorists, rogue states, or by any industrialized state that finds itself facing too many enemies and with too few soldiers to spare.[7] No one has ever proposed a realistic solution to the spread of nuclear weapons into the hands of Iranians, Pakistanis, North Koreans, and who knows who else? Behind all these potential bombs lies the technical training to make nuclear power plants, training now available at most large universities. If governments had refused to subsidize nuclear power starting in 1950, our modern problems might seem far more manageable than they do today. ** Petroleum, which gave us plastics, pesticides, and the private automobile, is now warming the planet, producing costly and destructive changes in Earth's climate including extreme droughts, floods, tornadoes, monsoons, and hurricanes.[8] Climate change, in turn, is expanding the geographic range of human diseases such
The young and the old: some Mums do have 'em
Mum sent me a letter thanking me for a couple Dutch CD's I sent her, with a copy of the following message - about the relationship between the young and the old in Holland, written by Jan Heesbeen. It's quite thoughtful, and I thought I would translate it: For everyone born before 1945: When you're older, you have to stay strong more than ever, because: - if the youth is tired, they "need a holiday"; if older people are tired, then they say: they are "a bit past it, they're getting old". - if the youth complains, they have a "definite opinion"; if the old complain, they "haven't understood it" - if the youth are in love, they feel "young"; if older people are in love, they are called "childish" or they say "never mind, there isn't any point in it" - if the youth forgets something, they say "I am terribly busy"; if an older person forgets something, they say "s/he is becoming demented". - if the youth is depressed, they have "problems"; if the older people are depressed, they are "whinging too much". But we older people are survivors. Just look at the changes which we have experienced. We were born before television, penicillin, polio shots, deepfrozen food, copying machines, contact lenses and contraception pills, before radar, creditcards, nuclear fission, laser beams, ballpoint pens, washing machines, dryers, electric blankets, airconditioning and travel to the moon. We married first and then lived together, how very quaint ! We were born before there were house-husbands and computer games, parttime jobs, and childcare centres, group therapy, nursing homes and hospices. In our youth "beetles" were insects and not Volkswagens. Ignition had nothing to do with electronics. We had never heard of TL, TV, CD, FM, CNN, DVD, PC, CD-ROM, video, magnetron, faxing, email, text processing, and printers. Nor mobile telephones, biogarde yoghurt, emulgators, driling islands, and guys with earrings, hippies, yuppies, dinky's, bobo's and bombshells. We were there before the A27 motorway, E9, Boeing 747, TGV, ecumenism, social security laws and retirement laws. Back then, "Made in Japan" meant shoddily made goods. We had never heard of pizza's, McDonalds, and instant coffee. A pocket watch cost a guilder and icecream 3, 5 or 10 cents. You could mail a letter for 5 or 7.5 cents. A new car cost 2,000 guilders and almost nobody could afford one. Petrol cost 10 cents a litre. In those days, smoking cigarettes was chique (women used a cigarette holder), therefore interesting. A "pot" was something to cook in, aids was an English word for helpers, a "relationship" had nothing to do with going to bed. We didn't know what "eating out of the wall" was. The colour pink had something to do with babies, and "homo" meant human. We are a generation who thought that you needed a man to have a baby. No wonder we're so confused and that there's a generation gap ?! But, we survived it all, and that's reason to be glad. Jurriaan
Re: When Workers Die
Mike Ballard wrote: 3. The neo-welfare-apartheid-state The anti-neoliberal faction of the socially all-embracing labour camp cannot bring itself to the liking of such a perspective. On the other hand, they are deeply convinced that a human being that has no job is not a human being at all. A pretty decent argument, if you ask me. Simone Weill made the same point long, long ago. -- The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
China: property rights II
[New York Tiomes] December 23, 2003 China Moves to Protect Property, but the Fine Print Has a Caveat By JOSEPH KAHN SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 22 - China's national legislature moved to amend the Constitution on Monday to protect private property rights, the first time the Communist Party has formally protected private wealth since taking power 55 years ago. The change, expected to be enacted early next year, is a milestone in China's 25-year economic reform effort. It marks a victory for advocates of China's emerging class of entrepreneurs, who have argued for years that the Marxist Constitution discriminates against them and gives leeway to the police and the courts to seize their property according to party dictates. The amendment, subjected to a prolonged debate behind closed doors during the past six months, says that "private property obtained legally shall not be violated," at least nominally putting it on the same footing as public property, which the Constitution now deems "sacred and inviolable." But the wording of the amendment made public on Monday differs in crucial ways from a simpler version put forward by supporters of more fundamental changes to the Constitution. By including the phrase "obtained legally," the amendment still makes the legal system, controlled by the Communist Party, the arbiter of property rights. Officials are determined to avoid the rush to privatization that occurred in Russia in the early 1990's, when entrepreneurs assumed ownership of valuable properties in sales that were later considered flawed. Corruption is rampant in China and some intellectuals and government leaders have long warned against steps that would make it easier for well-connected people to take control of public property and treat it as their own. The watered-down amendment also seems geared to give the state continued sway over wealthy businessmen who fall out of favor. Local and national authorities often confiscate land and money of people they consider threatening or disobedient, generally arguing that they lost their rights because they violated a law or regulation while accumulating their property. Sheng Hong, director of the Unirule Economic Institute in Beijing, said the amendment as unveiled by the legislature on Monday is crucial for economic development, but also shows the continued unease about the level of corruption in Chinese society. "This change should give private property holders more clarity and long-term predictability," Mr. Sheng said in a telephone interview. "But the phrase `obtained legally' really stands out. It is clearly meant to ensure that corrupt income does not become legal income." The amendment is the latest in a series of steps that the party has taken to end formal discrimination against private businessmen and make a claim to represent them on equal terms with peasants and workers. Last year, entrepreneurs were officially allowed to join the party for the first time, and they now constitute a tiny fraction of the party's membership roll of 66 million. The changes do not have a direct impact on China's peasant class. Farm land is still owned and controlled by the state and leased to farmers. Both the amendment to protect private property and the decision to open the party to businessmen is part of the legacy of Jiang Zemin, who retired as China's president and Communist Party chief in favor of Hu Jintao in a transition that began a year ago. Mr. Jiang remains China's military chief. Mr. Jiang sought to update the party's core ideology to reflect major changes in the economy, which now depends far more on private entrepreneurs, peasant farmers and foreign investors than state companies. Reflecting that contribution as well as his continuing influence over party affairs, the legislature on Monday also moved to enshrine Mr. Jiang's theory of the "Three Represents" alongside "Marxism, Mao Zedong Thought and the Theories of Deng Xiaoping" as the guiding ideologies of the state as written in the Constitution. The Three Represents maintains that the ruling party should represent advanced production forces, advanced cultural forces and the "overwhelming majority of Chinese people." It is a recognition, although a convoluted and vaguely worded one, that China is no longer primarily an egalitarian state and that it recognizes that capitalist-style development is essential to the survival of the Communist Party. The Chinese Constitution, unlike the American, is effectively subordinate to the ruling party and is easy for leaders to amend at will. The latest changes do not include any measures clearly associated with Mr. Hu, who was once viewed as open to considering more ambitious legal reforms, like setting up a constitutional court or guaranteeing broader democratic rights. Debate on those topics in the state-controlled media was firmly shut down over the summer months, and the legislature does not appear to be considering measures that go beyond the theories
Re: When Workers Die
full at: http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=03/12/17/1410233 "Manifesto Against Labour" Gruppe Krisis 1. The rule of dead labour A corpse rules society -- the corpse of labour. All powers around the globe formed an alliance to defend its rule: the Pope and the World Bank, Tony Blair and Jörg Haider, trade unions and entrepreneurs, German ecologists and French socialists. They don't know but one slogan: jobs, jobs, jobs! Whoever still has not forgotten what reflection is all about, will easily realise the implausibility of such an attitude. The society ruled by labour does not experience any temporary crisis; it encounters its absolute limit. In the wake of the micro-electronic revolution, wealth production increasingly became independent from the actual expenditure of human labour power to an extent quite recently only imaginable in science fiction. No one can seriously maintain any longer that this process can be halted or reversed. Selling the commodity labour power in the 21st century is as promising as the sale of stagecoaches has proved to be in the 20th century. However, whoever is not able to sell his or her labour power in this society is considered to be "superfluous" and will be disposed of on the social waste dump. Those who do not work (labour) shall not eat! This cynical principle is still in effect; all the more nowadays when it becomes hopelessly obsolete. It is really an absurdity: Never before the society was that much a labour society as it is now when labour itself is made superfluous. On its deathbed labour turns out to be a totalitarian power that does not tolerate any gods besides itself. Seeping through the pores of everyday life into the psyche, labour controls both thought and action. No expense or pain is spared to artificially prolong the lifespan of the "labour idol". The paranoid cry for jobs justifies the devastation of natural resources on an intensified scale even if the destructive effect for humanity was realised a long time ago. The very last obstacles to the full commercialisation of any social relationship may be cleared away uncritically, if only there is a chance for a few miserable jobs to be created. "Any job is better than no job" became a confession of faith, which is exacted from everybody nowadays. The more it becomes obvious that the labour society is nearing its end, the more forcefully this realisation is being repressed in public awareness. The methods of repression may be different, but can be reduced to a common denominator. The globally evident fact that labour proves to be a self-destructive end-in-itself is stubbornly redefined into the individual or collective failure of individuals, companies, or even entire regions as if the world is under the control of a universal idée fixe. The objective structural barrier of labour has to appear as the subjective problem of those who were already ousted. To some people unemployment is the result of exaggerated demands, low-performance or missing flexibility, to others unemployment is due to the incompetence, corruption, or greed of "their" politicians or business executives, let alone the inclination of such "leaders" to pursue policies of "treachery". In the end all agree with Roman Herzog, the ex-president of Germany, who said that "all over the country everybody has to pull together" as if the problem was about the motivation of, let us say, a football team or a political sect. Everybody shall keep his or her nose to the grindstone even if the grindstone got pulverised. The gloomy meta-message of such incentives cannot be misunderstood: Those who fail in finding favour in the eyes of the "labour idol" have to take the blame, can be written off and pushed away. Such a law on how and when to sacrifice humans is valid all over the world. One country after the other gets broken under the wheel of economic totalitarianism, thereby giving evidence for the one and only "truth": The country has violated the so-called "laws of the market economy". The logic of profitability will punish any country that does not adapt itself to the blind working of total competition unconditionally and without regard to the consequences. The great white hope of today is the business rubbish of tomorrow. The raging economical psychotics won't get shaken in their bizarre worldview, though. Meanwhile, three quarters of the global population were more or less declared to be social litter. One capitalist centre after the other is dashed to pieces. After the breakdown of the developing countries and after the failure of the state capitalist squad of the global labour society, the East Asian model pupils of market economy have vanished into limbo. Even in Europe, social panic is spreading. However, the Don Quichotes in politics and management even more grimly continue to crusade in the name of the "labour idol". "Everyone must be able to live from his work is the propounded principle. Hence that one can live is subject to a
