On 2012-03-16, at 1:14 PM, c b wrote:
> michael perelman
>
> Yes, China wants to develop its consumer base, but other countries are
> having to respond to the demand for higher wages because of pressure
> from below. Are Asian elites more advanced or are they responding to
> working class pressure that is non-existent here in the US.
>
> ^^^^^^
>
> CB: China's CP leadership is no doubt more advanced than the US bourgeois elite.
Anyone yet mention that Chinese manufacturers on the coast are experiencing labour shortages and have had to pay higher wages or relocate inland or to neighbouring countries where labour is cheaper? The more the interior industrializes, the more disincentive there is to migrate, pressuring coastal wages even more. As China moves up the value chain, wages are also rising to meet the demand for more highly skilled workers. Where labour is in short supply and workers are confident of finding work, they are more inclined to engage in job action and other forms of protest for better pay and benefits.
So there's nothing inherently more astute about Asian bosses of big state-owned or private firms. Their needs require that they make concessions to their workers. US capitalists aren't faced with a confident, assertive working class in a rapidly expanding economy where permanent manufacturing jobs are plentiful, as they once were. Now American workers are scrambling to find work, and it is not they, but their employers, who are demanding and winning concessions in the ongoing struggle between the classes.