> Have workers in the u.s. benefited as much from cheap commodities
> imprted from China et al as they have suffered in their wages and
> working conditions from that same fact?
Doug responded:
Insofar as we can trust the price indexes - and for their flaws, they're a lot better than guesswork - the answer is barely if at all. Aside from a few years in the late 1990s, real wages have been flat to down for more than 30 years.
--This is an interesting question. In the interview I did with Han Deqiang in 2005, I asked him about the hoopla about Chinese migrants experiencing a big increase in their standards of living due to the growth of foreign and domestic capitalist provided wages for labor in urban/coastal factories, restaurants, service sector...He said that for workers in the 80's this was true, even with the Dickensian like conditions that accompanied wage-labor that rural migrants found in the coastal cities. But over time inflation has eaten away at some of these gains and this has especially become so as education, health care, housing, etc. have become commodified and experienced far greater inflation than DVD players or shampoo. In some ways it was interesting how his answer reflected a similar situation for American workers. Go to Walmart or Target, especially when they're getting rid of pretty nice stuff for 50, 75% off [or hit Lands End's 'slightly imperfect' shelf, 85% off for pants for very thin men who are 6'2!] The gains that are experienced in terms of cheaper imports can't be lightly dismissed. But the added costs of health care, education, and more education, and a house subprimed to death...and well...
Steve -- Stephen Philion http://stephenphilion.efoliomn2.com/