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

[Jim Devine]

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

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm