No doubt they are coming up with some slight new variation on capitalism. Capitalism changes everyday. 80s capitalism is different from 90s capitalism, which is different from 00s capitalism. Capitalism wouldn't have lasted this long had it not learned how to change every minute of every hour. Your capitalism isn't my capitalism and America's capitalism isn't Germany's capitalism. Capitalism is the most adaptive economic system ever invented, nothing is more flexible. The word itself is a slippery fish, which is why Karl Marx himself avoided use of it, the word doesn't mean anything, it references nothing but itself. You think you know what the word means till you try to define it, and then it just melts away. Go to a coffeeshop and buy all the newspapers they offer, sit down and read all the business sections, you'll see the word "capitalism" given at least 20 different connotations (like, during the Cold War the capitalist West fought against the Communist East, but then, in 1976, you'll read that Margaret Thatcher defeated socialism in England. How can both be true?). Use the word for fun. It is a fun word, but it has no meaning, and it should only be used by people who have great senses of humor.
> But, unlike Cobble, I have no hope that these are actually better models
> for unionizing. I used to. But then I read a book I stumbled over in the
> business section, William Bridges JobShift. In that book, bridges argues
> for craft like unions to organize masses of independent contractors in
what
> he calls the post-industrial workforce. I've recently seen this model
> proffered by libertarians who are extremely hostile to the trade union
model.
A union of all temp workers would be a wonderful thing, a truly post-modern union, and we shouldn't call it a union at all, but a professional association. or some other thing, maybe some new thing, maybe some post modern thing.
--l lk