Gar Lipow wrote:
>
> [snip] Relative advantage is a problem
> worth talking about, but is a vastly different one than an absolute
> gain.
There was an article in NLR long ago that argued that white workerd in SA _shared in the surplus value_ produced by the black workers. That, of course, meant that white workers produced no surplus value (that is, 'kept' all they did produce). The article was fairly convincing. But it wqould be bizarre (as Doug just argued in his rseponse to Rob in another thread) to argue that white workers at GM not only retain all of the surplus value they produce but share in the surplus value produced by black McDonalds' workers.
Many contemporary marxists of course do not accept Marx's analysis of value, but if one does it is impossible to argue an absolute gain. So arguments in terms of wages and comparison of wage rates move us towards Woitek's or Gitlin's dissolution of race in class, which is absurd. I am beginning to think that point scoring (i.e. short posts purporting to provide 'evidence' for some 'side' in a debate is peculiarly vicious on this topic.
We need a _much_ more nuanced analysis of what the questions at issue are.
Incidentally re the subject line of this thread. The OED (2d esition) has never caught up with whatever sense the word identity has in this subject line. The closest it comes is a pschoanalytic usage, the earliest instance cited being 1954.