On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 7:20 AM, Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
> A few thoughts on the late Gary Becker. I would first like to note that
> it was the young Gary Becker's analysis of the economics of discrimination
> that provided the theoretical underpinnings to Milton Friedman's 1960s
> opposition to the passage of civil rights legislation that would outlaw
> discrimination, as expressed in Friedman's book, Capitalism and Freedom, as
> well in other writings back then. According to Becker and Friedman, under
> free market capitalism, such legislation was unnecessary since the
> invisible hand itself would punish discriminators, who would be placing
> themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the open market.
>
> Concerning Becker's efforts to apply the methods and techniques of
> neoclassical economics to a broad range of social science topics that were
> traditionally not considered to be within the domain of economics, I would
> say that I am reminded of the what the Bearded One was saying when he wrote:
>
> "The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to
> all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder
> the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has
> left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest,
> than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of
> religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism,
> in the icy water of egotistical calculation. "
>
> To the extent that this is true, then something like Gary Becker's kind of
> economic analysis might well succeed in shedding some light on many social
> phenomena in our society. On the other hand, not even capitalism, as
> powerful as it is, can reduce all aspects of human relations to the cash
> nexus. To the extent that is true, then Beckerian-style analysis will
> inevitably run into some serious limitations.
>
> I also think that it might be worthwhile to compare Becker's work with
> that of David M. Gordon, a Marxist economist, who died back in the 1990s.
> Gordon's work similarly covered as nearly a wide range of topics as did
> Becker's but Gordon came to rather different conclusions. Whereas, Becker
> maintained that under free market capitalism, discrimination would put the
> discriminators at a competitive disadvantage, so penalizing them, Gordon
> argued that race and gender discrimination was beneficial to the interests
> of capital as a whole because it divided workers along racial, ethnic, and
> gender lines, thereby weakening their bargaining power against capital.
> Gordon also wrote on many other topics as well. Like Becker, he wrote on
> crime, and like Becker, in his analysis he posited that most criminal
> activity was more or less rational to life under capitalism. Whereas for
> Becker, the economic analysis of crime was used to argue for increased
> punishment for offenders, Gordon's political economic analysis emphasized
> the criminogenic nature of capitalism. Capitalism itself was based on
> criminality and it created social conditions under which crime was often a
> rational response to these conditions. Therefore, for Gordon, the best
> answer for dealing with crime was not to lockup more criminals and throw
> away the key but rather to work to the transformation of capitalist society
>
>
>
> Jim Farmelant
> http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
> http://www.foxymath.com
> Learn or Review Basic Math
>
>
> ---------- Original Message ----------
> From: michael yates <mikedjyates at msn.com>
> To: "lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] The wretched Gary Becker is dead
> Date: Mon, 5 May 2014 09:49:24 -0400
>
> The wretched, reactionary economist, Gary Becker, has died. In his first
> book about the economics of discrimination, he described racist employers
> as having a "taste for discrimination." Just like you might have a "taste
> for pancakes." Those who had such a taste were, he argued, willing to
> accept lower profits to indulge it. That is, other things equal, employers
> would only hire black workers who were as productive as white workers if
> the black laborers would accept a lower wage.
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