[lbo-talk] Unproductive Workers = The Best Organized in the USA

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Wed Jan 18 08:27:16 PST 2006


On 1/18/06, Nathan Newman <nathanne at nathannewman.org> wrote: >This is a bizarre definition of "productive" to begin with. A health care worker in a public hospital does the same work as one in a private hospital-- and they both contribute value to society. I ride the subway every day and the work done to keep that subway going is as productive as when I ride a private bus to go to a different city.


>No reasonable definition of productivity should depend on whether the
work is paid for with tax dollars or private corporate funds. There may be useful distinctions between work that produces goods versus those based on servicing the workers who do that production, but such categories would treat private and public health care in the same category.


>No dobut some important analysis hinges on public versus private
ownership, but "productivity" doesn't seem like a useful term in that context. <

you're absolutely right! whether we use a Smithian or Marxian definition.

-- Jim Devine "The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin

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