[lbo-talk] White Supremacy (was Tim Wise)

Bill Bartlett william7 at aapt.net.au
Thu Jul 11 21:32:17 PDT 2013


My brother-in-law used to work as a traffic-controller with a road crew. That is, he operated a stop/go sign. He was telling me how these days you need three separate tickets (credentials) to be qualified for that job. ;-) I was flabbergasted.

I recall decades ago some people were making a fuss about "certification inflation", the process by which, the more workers tend to increase their qualification, the more qualifications tend to be demanded by employers. Of course it is not only employers to blame, to a large extent the incumbents in many professions and trades go along willingly. What with the ever-present threat of unemployment. As Wojtek has said, they recognise that this will tilt the supply/demand equation for employment vacancies in their field, by reducing effective supply of labour that might compete with theirs. The entire education/training sector is an eager co-conspirator, as this greatly increases the demand for their labour.

Someone has to run the various training courses for entry into the desirable field of stop/go sign operators.

You might imagine that this whole phenomenon tends to work against the interests of the capitalist class, as certification inflation cannot help but also inflate the price of labour in such fields. But employers are not blessed with great foresight, all they see is the short term benefit that they get from having a labour force which comes pre-trained, pre-certified, and job-ready. They fail to see the long term consequences. And anyhow, so long as their competition are required to pay the same premium (i.e. so long as the inflated certifications are legally mandated) the downside is so very long-term, that they wouldn't pay heed even if they understood it.

In the long term its bad for the whole industry. But in the short term, the maze of regulations tend to shut out competitors.

Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas

On 12/07/2013, at 2:07 AM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:


> College credentials are moving in fast. I am afraid that Charles and
> others who still sing the old leftie song in which professional Blacks
> are "traitors to their race" are going to miss that boat altogether.
>
> -- Wojtek
>
> ^^^^^^^
> CB: Old lefties and I don't sing such a song. Where did you get that ?
>
> Do you think I think I'm a traitor to my race ? ( giggles)
>
> I support affirmative action, which is the opposite of considering
> Black professionals as traitors to their race, as it promotes more
> Black people becoming professionals and managers.
>
> There has been an increase and qualitative expansion of Black petit
> bourgeoisie , professionals and managers, but they are not a new
> social strata, or Black people are not new to that strata.
>
> There are still an insignificant number of Black grand bourgeoisie,
> big burghers, despite all the increase in petit bourgeoisie.
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