“We Want Something Else…”
Remember that M.A.S.H. episode? That’s America’s electoral politics right now
I am going to write about the stupidity of America’s electoral politics, I promise. But, first, a quote from the French economist, Thomas Pikkety, who has some of it figured out:
“On August 16, 2012, the South African police intervened in a labor conflict
between workers at the Marikana platinum mine near Johannesburg and the mine’s owners: the stockholders of Lonmin, Inc., based in London. Police fired on the strikers with live ammunition. Thirty-four miners were killed. As often in such strikes, the conflict primarily concerned wages: the miners had asked for a doubling of their wage from 500 to 1,000 euros a month. After the tragic loss of life, the company finally proposed a monthly raise of 75 euros. This episode reminds us, if we needed reminding, that the question of what share of output should go to wages and what share to profits — in other words, how should the income from production be divided between labor and capital? — has always been at the heart of distributional conflict.”
This is from Pikkety’s radical book, Capital. The book didn’t say anything that new but it said it in a matter of fact way. When you read it or listen to him, you feel as if he is being honest. He does not state opinion either. He is…
