Gregory Geboski wrote:
>
> Doug Henwood writes, per why (I hope I have this right) regular capitalist development should lead to some ameliorating effects for US workers:
>
> << Relentless commodification of everything - and as Ursula Huws argues,
> the commodification of the domestic sphere has been a rich playground
> for capital over the last century - means more paid workers. >>
>
> Sure, but not in the 21st century United States, where the vast majority have been part of the wage labor-commodity nexus for some time. Unemployed and underemployed workers are still among "paid" workers,
Doug was responding to a question I raised -- and I hadn't asked for a prediction. I had asked if there was a theoretical explanation for an observed fact of capitalist history. Mere descriptions of the present or predictions of the future in this context aren't really relevant.
I'm not sure whether "relentless commodification" is such an explanation or only a further description of the facts to be explained, but in any case I don't think predictions of doom are a very firm foundation for political practice.
You never can tell -- they might commodify air: and that would require huge capital invesment for the purifying and delivery.
Carrol