[lbo-talk] "Stupid Ultraleftists on the Left"

[kjkhoo at softhome.net]

At 6:34 pm +0800 6/7/04, Grant Lee wrote:
>  > The majority of the global working class live
>>  outside the rich nations, getting paid less even when they do exactly
>>  the same work as workers who work for the same corporation in the
>>  rich nations.
>
>There is, as you know, no consensus among left scholars that this idea is
>really the case, although the idea certainly has a populist life of its own.

Perhaps I'm missing your point, but it'd be strange if there were no 
consensus on what is a straight-forward matter of fact. There might 
be dispute as to _why_ they are paid less -- issues of productivity, 
whether the work is equivalent, etc. -- and one can argue as to 
whether they should be paid the same, and what is the political 
significance of the difference, and so on. But being paid less, 
whether converted at exchange rate or at PPP, is not, I think, in 
doubt.

Take, for instance, assembly-line work in Intel. As far as I can 
tell, levels of productivity in production of CPU's, e.g., are not 
any lower in Penang, Malaysia, than in the US. But even if they were 
50% lower, wages are definitely more than 50% below that of the US. 
And Penang, Malaysia, would be one of the higher wage areas outside 
the US.

kj khoo