> Calling government workers unproductive is an invective straight out
> of the neo-liberal propaganda handbook, and if I were to name only
> one thing in the world "bullshit" that would be on a very short list...
Marx used a concept of unproductive labor (seemingly in order to confuse the reader and to produce seemingly endless debates amongst academic Marxists). But he was clear that it was not a matter of honor to be a productive laborer (under his definitions) -- and thus not a matter of dishonor to be an unproductive one. ("To be a productive worker is therefore not a piece of luck, but a misfortune." -- CAPITAL, vol. I, ch. 16.)
For Marx, a worker is "productive" if she or he produces surplus-value. An unproductive worker does not do so. This differs from the concept of Smith _et al_, who saw unproductive workers as producing socially unneeded use-values (e.g., the work of personal servants). -- Jim Devine "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin