I drink your milkshake! a metaphor for capitalism

[wkmac]

just heard that a congressman from south carolina is trying to pass a bill which will allow Puerto Rico to get rid of its planned minimum wage.

so when workers are negotiating on a free market with their employer, it will be interesting to see how much less they will make with no minimum wage protecting them 5 years from now assuming this passes.

The actions of the above SC politico do make for good theater but what if the minimum wage was more about creating a price floor that benefits the very "rich" you are condeming?

You might study the history and relationship of the minimum wage with not just price floors but how it relates to actual wealth transfer up and down the economic hierarchy. Minimum wage can also act as an entry barrier not just for the individual but also across an economic class which then builds dependency while acting as a barrier to upstart competition. It also forces potential actors into a monopolized cash nexus controlled by the few to the disadvantage of the many.

 

[rickyb]

The actions of the above SC politico do make for good theater but what if the minimum wage was more about creating a price floor that benefits the very "rich" you are condeming?

You might study the history and relationship of the minimum wage with not just price floors but how it relates to actual wealth transfer up and down the economic hierarchy. Minimum wage can also act as an entry barrier not just for the individual but also across an economic class which then builds dependency while acting as a barrier to upstart competition. It also forces potential actors into a monopolized cash nexus controlled by the few to the disadvantage of the many.

ive never heard that before, but thats very interesting. but i sorta doubt its true, and also the business community are the ones who oppose minimum wage increases right?

my personal conclusion on minimum wage is they should increase it so that theres some kind of equilibrium between workers well being, and the number of workers who lose their jobs after the minimum wage is too high. and then after having raise it, if the wage is still too low for a decent standard of living assuming a 40 hour work week, then the government should come in and just give the workers cash to make up the difference. personally i think the work week should be closer to 30 hours because its been a few decades now since they cut the work week from 80 to 60 hours to 40.

ultimately, workers should have never been put in a situation where they dont have voting power at the jobs they work in.

 

[rickyb]

The actions of the above SC politico do make for good theater but what if the minimum wage was more about creating a price floor that benefits the very "rich" you are condeming?

You might study the history and relationship of the minimum wage with not just price floors but how it relates to actual wealth transfer up and down the economic hierarchy. Minimum wage can also act as an entry barrier not just for the individual but also across an economic class which then builds dependency while acting as a barrier to upstart competition. It also forces potential actors into a monopolized cash nexus controlled by the few to the disadvantage of the many.

say they get rid of the minimum wage, but you wanted to ensure any worker who does 40 hours a week has a decent life, what would you propose?

 

[newfie]

he does a bunch of short updates and then does longer discussions about socialism and fascism and how in the future in america you might not be able to protest at all. his videos have gained in popularity alot over the last year.

with who or whom

 

[BrownArmy]

with who or whom

Could you elaborate?

 

[Sportello]

with who or whom

Could you elaborate?

Doubtful.

 

[rickyb]

from a chris hedges article:

"Suicides mount. (There are more than 40,000 a year in the U.S.) Hunger spreads. (Some 48.1 million Americans, including 15.3 million children, live in food-insecure households.)"

where is the war on suicides? in the worst year of terrorism, 3000 people died which is less than 10% of how many die each year from suicides.

 

[newfie]

Could you elaborate?

that's what I was asking

 

[rickyb]

that's what I was asking

what do you mean? who he is gaining popularity with? well on youtube hes up to 70k views. a few years back his monthly updates only got a few thousand. his weekly radio program is on 50 stations.

 

[rickyb]

If the capital isn't provided democratically, then why should the profits be distributed democratically?

The capitalist is never the only one who takes risks in starting a new business. So do the workers who forego other jobs, other communities, other life activities to take the job with any particular capitalist employer. Employees risk all the effects of the capitalist employer's decisions (eg deploying a dangerous piece of machinery, a toxic technology, a wrong guess about what product will sell, etc.) without being allowed to participate in any of them. The idea that only capitalist take risks is fundamentally absurd.

In capitalism, capitalists buy labor power - the worker's capacity to perform labor - only if and when the worker, by his or her labor, generate MORE value than what their employers pay them. Your boss pays you say $20 per hour only if, during that hour, your labor adds more value than $20 to what your employer has to sell. That more is the employer's profit. To demand that workers have a say in what happens to (what social use is made of) profits simple says that workers are entitled by right to a say in what their labor, their brains and muscles, produced.

Finally, the only reason capital is not provided democratically is because capitalism funnels the MORE produced by many workers into the hands of a very few employers.

 

[newfie]

that's what I was asking

got my cowardly red X reward for asking the right question!!! Winner!!!

 

[newfie]

what do you mean? who he is gaining popularity with? well on youtube hes up to 70k views. a few years back his monthly updates only got a few thousand. his weekly radio program is on 50 stations.

The post of mine you quoted was not asking the question you paraphrased?

 

[rickyb]

abby martin interviews richard wolff about the contradictions of capitalism some of which will certainly bring about its demise i would say in this century. he also describes socialism. at the beginning they say karl marx is the most influential philosopher ever, and that americans younger than 30 like socialism far more than capitalism. after watching this election, im proud of the youth, they managed to not vote for the corrupt hillary and they are not afraid of disliking capitalism. the older generations fear of socialism is partly holding the country back.

 

[rickyb]

whoever told you its either capitalism or government socialism lied

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/714071481819471872

 

[rickyb]

capitalist effiiciency. note its not profitable for food corporations to make sure everyone is fed, because they want people to spend more money on their product.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/714867007015944192

 

[rickyb]

just a stunning stunning interview from michael hudson. i heard about him a few years ago and have listened to quite a few interviews hes done, not enough though.

HUDSON: ...America now is having the same crisis that Argentina had, that Greece had, that Latvia had, that Russia had. These economies are our future. And it’s going to go down and down in a slow crash.

HEDGES: But could it go down and down, and what we end up with is a form of neofeudalism, a rapaciously wealthy, oligarchic elite with a kind of horrifying police state to keep us all in order?

HUDSON: This is exactly what happened in the Roman Empire.

HEDGES: Yes, it did.

HUDSON: You had the great Roman historians, Livy and Plutarch – they blamed the decline of the Roman empire on the creditor class being predatory, and the latifundia. The creditors took all money, and would just buy more and more land, displacing the other people. The result in Rome was a Dark Age, and that can last a very long time. The Dark Age is what happens when the rentiers take over.
__________________________


HEDGES: So, spell it out for people. What’s going to – I mean, we’ve lost control of this predatory or parasitic force.

HUDSON: Well, you can look at the future as what’s happening in Greece, what happened in Russia after their traumatic shock therapy. America’s in for shock therapy, no matter who wins the presidential …

HEDGES: So play it out for me. What’s it going to look like?

HUDSON: Well, more people are going to have higher and higher charges for what they spend for medical care. More for schooling. More just to break even. And they’re going to have to draw down their existing savings, or they’re going to have to downsize, or they’re going to have to default.

 

[rickyb]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/718909604583862273

 

[newfie]

my personal conclusion on minimum wage is they should increase it so that theres some kind of equilibrium between workers well being, and the number of workers who lose their jobs after the minimum wage is too high. .

Liberals push this issue because they know workers will lose their jobs. the worker loses his job and becomes dependent on government assistance.

Feed in a little blame the rich rhetoric and that worker becomes a loyal liberal voter when the other option could have been to improve their skill set so that they no longer have to depend on the minimum wage positions.

 

[newfie]

capitalist effiiciency. note its not profitable for food corporations to make sure everyone is fed, because they want people to spend more money on their product.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/714867007015944192

Taygo

 

[rickyb]

Liberals push this issue because they know workers will lose their jobs. the worker loses his job and becomes dependent on government assistance.

Feed in a little blame the rich rhetoric and that worker becomes a loyal liberal voter when the other option could have been to improve their skill set so that they no longer have to depend on the minimum wage positions.

well i have no idea, but I push it because its obvious were making a small minority of the population very rich, its undemocratic taking orders all the time at work, and capitalism is tearing through the worlds resources way too fast and is way too inefficient.