[lbo-talk] Every mark want they scrilla back (was: Walmart)

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Mar 26 12:37:00 PST 2004


Kelley:
> ARe these people mindless slaves who identify with their employer?
With
> capital? Yes, in the long run, since they aren't doing something more
> constructive to REALLY get they scrilla back. But, I would argue that
what
> this suggests to me is that they are not people who bend over and hand
> capital the vaseline.
>

I can be argued that these folks really screw patrons of these establishments - i.e. folks like themselves - who pay for it in the form of higher prices, while the owners get their cut anyway.

What is more, the bosses can easily outsmart employees by posting a sing "If we fail to give you a check, your meal is free" - which turns every customer into a snitch. Not to mention "mystery shoppers" and goons recruited from the ranks of the very same class to spy on conniving employees.

Who said that he can hire half the working class to finish off the other half?

Michael Burawoy (_Manufacturing consent_) document how factory workers compete against each other for scraps instead of pursuing a collective action.

All that - turning customers to snitches, mystery shoppers, goons, and competition for scraps - are examples of a phenomenon known as prisoner's dilemma. In short, two prisoners are offered to snitch on one another in exchange for a reduced sentence, but if both show solidarity and keep their mouth shut - both will walk and thus win a much bigger prize.

There are ways of overcoming the prisoner's dilemma, nut they requite functioning social institutions that foster solidarity - and these are in rather short supply in Amerika.

Wojtek



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