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

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Thu Jan 19 12:27:05 PST 2006



> tfast wrote:
>
> >Also on the SNA see
> >
> >Measuring the Wealth of Nations: The Political Economy of National
> >Accounts (1994) co-authored with E. Ahmet Tonak, Cambridge
> >University Press.
>
> As much as I like & admire Shaikh & Tonak, I couldn't see the point
> of this book. I see the LTV as a theory of the ultimate origins of
> the phenomenal categories of capitalist economies (e.g., the SNAs,
> the NIPAs, the flows of funds, etc.). But the exercise of
> translating national income accounts into Marxian terms, and
> dividing productive from unproductive labor - what's the point?
> What do you gain? If you were trying to prove that a rising share
> of unproductive labor would ultimately bring down the rate of
> profit which would ultimately bring down capitalism, well, that's
> an understandable, if futile, goal. Shaikh & Tonak exhibit hints of
> that (as I recall the conclusion), but they shy away from full-
> blown catastrophism. So please explain - what's the point?
>
> Doug

I haven't read the book, but what the book might say (if I had written it) would be that a rising share of unproductive labor was one cause (not the only cause) of the decline of profit rates in the 1970s. Since then, the profit rates have recovered some, owing to successful union-busting, offshoring, and the like. But lo and behold, public-sector workers are still left standing strong, better organized than ever, and, more obnoxious still, "Over 90 percent of public sector workers are covered by an employer-provided pension plan, whereas only about half of the private sector work force is covered (Employee Benefit Research Institute 1997)" (at <http:// www.eh.net/encyclopedia/article/craig.pensions.public.us> -- since then, the gap must have grown wider). There is nothing more appalling from a capitalist point of view than retired public-sector workers living on defined-benefit pensions! Most of them were white- collar workers, so (actuaries say) that they will live much longer than retired blue-collar workers (cf. <http://www.tdu.org/Newsroom/ House_Considers_Measure_to_Cut/house_considers_measure_to_cut.htm>)! Triply unproductive!!! Prediction (for Wojtek who is over-fond of a crystal-ball conception of "science"): that's where the class struggle hot spot will be. :-> To be sure, you get the same point by reading business pages (that may be in part because business reporters have read Marx and Keynes -- schooling does educate some students).

Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org>



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