On the examples. The hospital that takes care of the WMT worker is doing so mostly at someone else's expense, which is why WMT is happy to pass out instructions on how to apply for Medicaid. That aids in the reproduction of the working class, just like women's unpaid household labor. And the government scientist is covering basic research expenses - the kind of broad, noncommercial work on which no one could make a buck. But in both cases, they're not direct contributions to profit-making, which is one reason the public sector is always having to beg for cash.
Doug
^^^^ CB: I don't disagree with all the questioning of the productive-unproductive distinction.
Just a thought that labor that contributes to the reproduction of the working class produces the commodity of labor power. Labor power as a commodity is one of the defining characteristics of the capitalist mode of production. Wage laborers own nothing but their own labor power , which commodity they sell.