[lbo-talk] Value of the dollar

[// ravi]

On Jan 31, 2012, at 10:52 AM, Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Jan 31, 2012, at 10:18 AM, // ravi wrote:
> 
>> But neither of those points says much, does it? You would expect more labour militancy where the alternative is mass suicide, toxic work environments with spiking cancer rates, etc. Second, wages are bound to increase when the economy is growing at a good clip. No?
> 
> You wouldn't necessarily expect the first, no. Sometimes workers are so beaten down that they don't protest at all. How much militancy has there been in Latin America during the neoliberal era?
> 
> And there's not much relationship between growth & wages. Here in the USA, per capita GDP has nearly doubled since 1973, but the real wage is nonetheless down.
> 

Both true. So perhaps if I have an argument left, it is that the Chinese economy has been on a relative tear, with demand across the board. Nothing comparable in Latin America or the USA, I would guess? Apart from perhaps the 90s in the USA when wages indeed did rise. Regarding labour militancy in China, how big is it? How can US labour turn internationalist by supporting such militancy while at the same time avoiding an erosion of US standards of living? (within reason i.e., not including the impossible dream of two cars and an independent house in the suburbs for all 7 billion of us).

	—ravi