At 06:50 AM 9/14/99 -0700, Brad DeLong wrote: >Lenin's idea that the prosperity of the industrial core is critically >linked to a poor periphery from which the core can buy raw materials >was perhaps true (but perhaps not) in 1900. (The best example of Was not that originally Rosa Luxemburg's idea? The critical linkage being constant expansion, cheap labor power source, new markets rather than straightforward expolitation. Using an analogy to automobile - the periphery is a radiator rather than a gasoline tank - its main function is dissipation of excess heat rather than the provision of the propellant. Since from a marxist perspective, it is the "excess heat" in the organic composition of capital that will bring capitalism to its meltdown - third world plays an important function of absobing that heat and keeping capitalism alive. If that is the case, that is even more true today than it was in 1900. >This I don't see at all. The consumers who shop for clothes at Target >and T.J. Maxx *are* workers (well, are me too)... > > Let's see... A T-shirt that cost $0.50 to produce in one of Asia's sweatshops sells at $12 at Target, which gives what - about 2,500% profit margin. How is that supposed to benefit the working class buyer is beyond me - unless perhaps we accept the advertisers' Orwellian logic that spending is saving. wojtek
