[lbo-talk] Boycotting the unorganized?

[snit snat]

At 12:14 AM 1/21/2005, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>if they can't rely on their family members' self-exploitation), so Bill's 
>family members can't be said to be putting downward wage pressures and 
>eroding industry standards.  I'm not even sure if we can talk about wages 
>here.  Presumably, the living standards of Bill's wife, mother, children, 
>and mother-in-law are more positively correlated with the store's profits 
>than with their "wages," which puts them into a different class than 
>workers for the bigger union and non-union grocery stores.

Is self-exploiation even possible? Seriously. I ask because Carrol once 
made the argument that a violinist isn't exploiting someone if he hires 
another muscian to play a gig.

I can't see how my partner and I will be exploiting ourselves, either. Nor 
my son exploiting himself if we were to have enough work to need his help. 
We'd pay ourselves a living wage and then charge enough to cover overhead, 
expenses (which include things like time to learn new tools), marketing to 
keep business coming in in case we lose a client, etc. The small business 
experts say that you should factor in profit to get a rate you can live 
with. In our case, that would go right into savings for retirement and 
emergency expenses -- if we were that lucky.

kelley

"We live under the Confederacy.
We're a podunk bunch of swaggering
pious hicks."

                --Bruce Sterling