[lbo-talk] Obama on poverty: straight DLC

[Max B. Sawicky]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Apr 1, 2008, at 9:18 PM, Max B. Sawicky wrote:
>> The only people who don't support the EITC are a few misguided  
>> lefts who
>> insist without
>> a scintilla of evidence that it's an employer subsidy
> 
> How is it not an employer subsidy? It allows employers to pay wages  
> below the cost of reproduction of the working class. I suppose only a  
> "misguided left" would say something like that. Except that an old  
> college friend of mine who ran a public housing authority in  
> California - someone with totally mainstream Dem politics - said her  
> purpose was to allow employers to pay substandard wages.
> Doug

I take it back.  You do have a scintilla.

The question is, if they are paying X to begin with (pre-EITC), what do they
pay after an EITC.  Let's say it is now X-a.  If 'a' is smaller than the 
EITC, which
it invariably is in empirical work, your friend notwithstanding, on 
balance it's
not an employer subsidy.