> What did change at the end of the century was the balance of class forces.
This
> profound shift, rather than sudden appearance of a generation of Gordon
> Gekkos, is what underlies today's "neoliberal" capitalist excesses. The
regulated
> welfare state and modest reduction in inequality were the the product of
an
> expanding industrial economy and labour shortages which produced strong
trade
> unions able to place some restraint on unbridled capitalism. By the same
token,
> the assault on the welfare state and widening inequality are a consequence
of the
> abrupt decline of the labour and socialist movement under the combined
pressure
> of new communications, transportation, and production technologies which
have
> allowed capital to shed workers at home and tap huge new reserves of
cheaper
> labour overseas. Politically, the unexpected restoration of capitalism in
the fSU and
> China also discredited left-wing ideas everywhere, and we're only now
beginning
> to see their revival under the impact!
> of crisis in the older capitalist economies.
This is superb! (And it is my reason for continually referencing the last chapter of Wages, Price & Profit.) Capitalists, whether they are nice or reptilian, will constantly strive to reduce the wage share of national income.
An additional point on the causes of the change in class power: the increased power of imperialism.
The traditional account of imperialism as generating superprofits with which labor was bribed was false in every particular. Imperialism was grounded in the power of capital in the core, and its impact was to block the development of _independent_ capital in the colonial or semi-colonial world. "Globalism" or the Empire of Capital manifested the development of independent capital in China, Brazil, India, etc., thus generating a vast new industrial reserve army. _That_ in turn further strengthened capital in the core. (See Marv's report some months ago on a Caterpillar firm in London, Ontario.
The Empire of Capital as contrasted with Neocolonialism freed capital to move or threaten to move capriciously from one part of the world to another, weakening labor everywhere.
Carrol