[lbo-talk] UAW wage conessions/correct url

[Somebody Somebody]

Marv: The subject wasn't the relative levels of inequality in the US and Europe. It is whether the European workers, by virtue of a their presumed social compact with their employers and governments, are better insulated from attacks on their rights and benefits than those in the "Anglo-Saxon" countries. Read Woj's post again if you want examples of overstatement. Better yet, wave your GINI coefficients at Greek, Spanish, Irish, and other workers currently bearing the brunt of the austerity drive to show them how much better off they are than their American counterparts and how much they owe to their "European model" of industrial relations."

Somebody: Wait a second - if European workers were really withering under sustained attack from the bosses like their American counterparts you would not see such continued low levels of inequality. Instead we see a great deal of diversity in GINI trends in industrialized nations, with many experiencing increased inequality but some showing no such trend to speak of. Indeed, France showed a decline in the neoliberal era. 

By contrast, the U.S. has seen increased inequality from the very beginning of the shift to neoliberalism. 

A similar story can be told in the former socialist states. The end of communism brought a vicious rise in inequality in Poland but countries like Hungary and Slovakia have low GINI's. Slovenia has Scandinavian levels of inequality - one of the lowest in the world.

I believe you're the one waving away evidence here. But then, for some bland generalities and meta-narratives are more interesting than hard data. "Workers are under attack" - I just wrote the headline for Marxist newspapers for the next 1000 years.