AynCrap

The Beeb has produced a fifty-part radio serial about things that created the modern economy. Listen, peon!

George Monbiot is shilling for the glorious red future again. This isn't the first time he's written about neoliberalism this year, so I guess this is  on his mind a fair bit. He even did a video for Verso on the subject. Having read David Harvey's book on the same subject I am disinclined to humor any nonsense about neoliberalism anymore than I am about cultural Marxism. ~ a. neoliberal laundry ~ 1. Monetarism in central bank policy 2. Privatization of lots of government organisations 3. Deregulation of many or all industries 4. Tax decreases as absolute quantities 5. Re-balancing of labor laws to be more than 50% in favor of employers 6. Decrease in funding for or abolition of state welfare benefits Did I miss anything? To what extent have the countries of the world implemented these policy changes since 1970? Well, Chile managed all six but went back to a 50/50 split in labour law when Pinochet was ousted. So that's one country. The USA did 1 a...

The idea that labor exploits capital is equally as plausible, sans assumptions*, as the idea that capital exploits labor. This is only intended as a response to the formal concept, descriptive or normative, of exploitation in Marx's schema from Capital Volume I. * Assumptions include the power relation whereby capital is just assumed to be above labor hierarchically. ~ ~ Capital exploits labor because... ... Capital earns income from production done by labor that capital didn't perform & ~ Labor exploits Capital because... ... Labor earns income from capital that labor didn't buy ~ Basically in good old formal logic fashion both of those cases above, being factual descriptions, are true at once or are false at once.

This will literally be two short linky descriptions. Seriously, go away and watch both videos. Mario Karts are real! And they are in Tokyo right now! Also, capitalism is useful to more than just capitalists.

... No . There is no reason to suggest that automation will dramatically increase unemployment in the short term, or at all in the long term. Seriously, it will not . Do read the links in the order in which they appear please. Finding the right comments in the third link might be quite interesting. They are all by a user called BestTrousers and start with "RI" meaning R1. The main argument used by HealthcareEconomist3 is to give a survey of several works, while BestTrousers goes for comparative advantage .

Private property was a necessary precondition for the long-term adoption of farming. Matt Bruenig had a bee in his bonnet about libertarian entitlement theories, and I would sympathize if the attack was purely against the 'non-aggression axiom' crowd, but in practice it's an attack on private property rights per se, hence my previous post on the subject back in December 2015. Matt's definition of the libertarian position on property rights makes a big omission and needs to be changed from; Theft occurs when (1) you threaten or use force against someone (2) to exclude them from scarce material resources (3) without their consent. ... to; Theft occurs when (1) you threaten or use force against someone (2) to exclude them from previously legitimately claimed scarce material resources (3) without their consent. Those three words in bold are very important. Could 'legitimately' above be a synonym for peacefully? For consensually? At least for now I...

There is a website called Aeon that is home to many essays. One by Joel Mokyr summing up the thesis of his 2016 book A Culture of Growth was quite lovely, whereas another by Peter Fleming about human capital theory was bizarre. The site, overall, seems to be well worth a read. Whatever your outlook on life the essays will be a mixed bag, with a defence of organisational hierarchy perhaps catching in some craws. ~~~ That third essay seems to be defending a situation that Deirdre McCloskey (or myself) would call 'bourgeois equality' or equality of fundamental status (dignity in McCloskey's locution) and equality before the law. Good.