----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 8:05 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Imperialism & Exploitation
andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>But Roemer show syou can have
>inequality without "bad" exploitation -- he has models
>in which the poor exploit the rich (the rich transfrer
>surplus labor to be poor). He uses these to conclude
>that it's not exploitation that is troubling, but
>inequality.
"He has models..." Neoclassicals have a lot of models too, but they're mostly crap. These sound like crap too. Where does inequality come from if not the appropriation of value created by others? Where, to be more specific, do executive salaries, profits, interest, dividends, and rent come from?
Doug
===================
The marginal productivity of capital, of course!
:->
Appropriation, in itself, is not wrong; symmetry/equality across all possible trades-bargaining strategies is just not possible. And to attempt to enforce-coerce such symmetry would entail authoritarianism the likes of which we've yet to see.
Justin's paper is *quite* good, actually.
Ian