michael perelman
I posted this because I think it is fascinating the way it suggests class awareness is far more advanced within the Asian working-class than in the West. Can you imagine governments in Europe or the United States today telling business that they must raise wages because they fear the voters?
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I forget who made the remark, but it's correct: Class struggle is the health of capitalism (just as war is the health of the state). The class struggles (for wage increases) that Michael notes merely underlines this. The Asian states, I suspect, are no so much worried about unrest as they are about the development of a national market as exports become more problematic. Hence it doesn't indicate a greater "class awareness" in Asia but simply that class consciousness (or the lack of it) is differently expressed under different social conditions.
Would Michael's point be an instance of the grass always being greener on the other side of the fence?
Incidentally, I think the proposition about Americans thinking of themselves as potential millionaires is quite silly. It certainly doesn't describe any significant part of the total population. Some years ago there was a poll asking people how much greater an income they needed to satisfy their needs and desires. It turned out that _every_ single income level gave the same answer: 5% increase would be sufficient. This was true both of millionaires and those on relief.
We are dealing with the unfortunate habit of u.s. leftists to sneer a the U.S. rather than at capitalism as a system.
Carrol