[lbo-talk] I'll be voting in TX Dem primary - who should I votefor?

Voyou voyou1 at gmail.com
Thu Feb 14 19:00:50 PST 2008


On Fri, 2008-02-15 at 12:56 +1100, Bill Bartlett wrote:
> It has to be paid for. All very well to talk about paying for it with
> taxes on workers, but the workers can only pay tax out of the wages
> paid to them by bosses and workers will resist any reduction in
> take-home pay.

Sure, but that resistance isn't always successful. Depending on the strength of working-class resistance in any given case, the bosses can transfer more or less of the cost of the tax to the workers. Furthermore, the legal formalities about who is charged for the tax are part (not the most important part, probably, but not entirely negligible, either) of what affects how that struggle over the wage gets played out.

The idea that bosses always pay taxes formally levied on workers is a useful abstraction to illustrate a genuine tendency within capitalism; but you shouldn't mistake that abstraction for the reality, which is determined by a specific class struggle at a specific place and time.

--

"Why must man's vocation always be to distinguish

himself from animals?" http://blog.voyou.org/ -- Baudrillard



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list