[lbo-talk] People today just don't have the work ethic they used to!

Charles Brown charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us
Wed Jun 11 05:38:48 PDT 2008



>>> andie nachgeborenen

Alternatively there is an argument (the details of which I do not know) like John Roemer's neoclassical Marxist "divide and conquer" explanation of racial employment discrimination, something that, as Milton Friedman observed long ago, apparently makes no economic sense from the point of view of pure profit maximization.

^^^^^ CB: I agree with your discussion, but on this particular , pace Friedman, the Marxist economist Victor Perlo wrote two books arguing that the US capitalists derive super-profits from racism _Economics of Racism_ I and II (1973 and 1996). Part of the argument is that white worker's wages are lower too, because the class is divided , and thereby struggles weaker in the class struggle. Workers of color's wages are lower as a direct result of the racism. Perlo puts numbers to this.

Another way to look at it is white workers elect Nixon who appeals to them with a racist "Southern Strategy". Then in a new episode of the Southern strategy, they elect Reagan, neo-liberalism is instituted. Over this long run, wages stagnate, and profits soar.

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