[lbo-talk] service coops (was Servant culture)

[Brad DeLong]

>Though as the explanation in Nickle and Dimed makes pretty clear, the
>services are potentially more exploitative  because the clients' money is
>not going directly to the worker - the service takes a big fat cut, and
>workers get peanuts. If you were going to spend the money to have someone
>clean your house, wouldn't you want to make sure that person, rather than a
>corporation, got as much of your money as you could afford --with all due
>qualifications on the word "afford" -- to pay them? The only advantage I can
>see to the service is it removes the consumer from the uncomfortable
>position of acting as capitalist boss, but in fact this very comfort is
>purchased at the worker's expense...

I think that is right. I think that somewhere in Barbara Ehrenreich's 
past she learned the teaching that the important thing is for one to 
assume a proper moral stance vis-a-vis the universe--in this case, 
not to be a "boss". That the service gets a big cut and the worker 
gets a small wage seem not to be important elements of the 
situation...

Brad DeLong