[lbo-talk] Re: working class?

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Oct 18 10:50:36 PDT 2005


Joanna:
> Which argues that we've been in a rentier era for the last 25 years? I
> mean, it just seems that differences are not profound in terms of who
> rules, but the rentier model would be harsher on the working class.

That is essentially what Emmanuel Todd argues - he believes that the US as a whole - and that includes its so-called working class - is a rentier society living off property income rather than production. Different social strata may get different shares of that property income - a janitor gets a much smaller share than the CEO i.e. cheap Wal-Mart schlock made in China vs. corporate stocks, but both live off income generated - for a substantial part - by property rights rather than by producing and selling products.

If I understand Todd correctly, he believes that about a third of the US GDP is property income (rent) and that is the amount by which the US economy must be "deflated" to resume its normal capitalist relations with the rest of the world.

Wojtek



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