[lbo-talk] Doomed

joanna bujes jbujes at covad.net
Fri Oct 8 17:35:37 PDT 2004


Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


>>In many ways, his vision came true. For one thing, the mergence of the
>>executive class - highly paid employees that took over the control of the
>>firm putting owners (stockholders) to the back seat - or ESOP is consistent
>>with Marx's prophecy of the producers taking the control of the means of
>>production. It may lack the populist appeal and revolutionary romanticism -
>>but it is a form of workers' control of the means of production nonetheless.
>>
That's way too weird Woj. The execs are not workers or producers of anything except of privileges for themselves. The stockholders are still making money.


>>Or take the emergence of social welfare state in Europe that significantly
>>improved the living conditions of the working class beyond anything that any
>>other political system achieved. It may not abolished the sale of labour
>>power but it significantly increased its "exchange value" i.e. social work
>>needed to reproduce it from bare survival minimum to the highest standards
>>of living known to humankind.
>>
But that had something to do with the expansion of capitalism through expanded consumption and with the threat of the soviets...???


>>
>>So Marxism, if taken literary is far from being dead - many of its
>>predictions came true and today are taken for granted. Not a bad thing for
>>a social scientist.
>>
I disagree as far as it's possible to disagree. You're just playing with words here Woj, to claim that Marx's vision was realized.

Joanna



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