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11041 [lbo-talk] US consumption -- rank: 1000

On Mar 6, 2007, at 10:12 AM, James Heartfield wrote: > I don't ignore the figures Doug gave. He showed that median > household income > rose by 15 per cent between 1973 and 2005. > > He also showed that hourly wages fell by 11 per cent. But given > that those > dollars (as my table shows) bought more goods, hourly wages > measured in > consumer goods as opposed to dollars have not fallen. James, what do you think "real" means in this context? It means correc ...

Document Size:	5462
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 6 08:09:23 PST 2007

11042 [lbo-talk] US consumption (was barbaric?) -- rank: 1000

On Mar 6, 2007, at 5:38 AM, James Heartfield wrote: > But the secular tendency is there, it is the tendency to reduce > costs. This > was shown by Cox and Alm, who estimated how long you would have to > work to > earn enough to buy some basic consumer goods: > > Year 1920 1930 > 1940 > 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 Latest* > Half gallon of Milk 37mins 31 > 21 16 > 13 ...

Document Size:	6508
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 6 07:45:50 PST 2007

11043 [lbo-talk] Anna Nicole, RIP -- rank: 1000

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=171759 R.I.P., Anna Nicole Liza Featherstone At times, the right and the left share a school-marmish attitude toward pop culture and the people who enjoy it. (You know, those benighted fools who make up most of the world's population.) Not surprisingly, then, liberals and conservatives alike have been falling all over themselves to chide the masses for taking an interest in the tragic story of Anna Nicole Smith. Writing in the March 19 National Rev ...

Document Size:	8211
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 6 07:41:29 PST 2007

11044 [lbo-talk] Flipping Houses for Dummies -- rank: 1000

[from Merrill Lynch's Richard Bernstein] This Beats the "Business Week" Indicator One of the beauties of working at a firm like Merrill Lynch for 18 years is that one gets "schooled" by some true masters of macro research: Bob Farrell, Chuck Clough, and Dick McCabe. Although each was different in their approach to the markets, they all shared a sense for the contrarian indicator. One of Bob's favorites was the "Business Week" Indicator. When something appear ...

Document Size:	5791
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 6 07:33:49 PST 2007

11045 [lbo-talk] barbaric -- rank: 1000

On Mar 6, 2007, at 12:49 AM, joanna wrote: > Based on my work experience, the reasons why management is "necessary" > is so that the workers will never discover that they can organize > themselves to do the same work in the complete absence of > "management." > > That is, management is politically necessary, not economically > necessary. I suspect, though we could never know in advance, that under true worker management, there'd be more preference for le ...

Document Size:	5307
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Mar 6 05:13:21 PST 2007

11046 [lbo-talk] barbaric -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 9:17 PM, Bill Bartlett wrote: > I don't understand what you mean by "level of social spending". Do > you mean government expenditure on health and welfare? If so then you > must realise that the statistics you quote are meaningless, since US > social spending on things like health care, education, pensions etc > defined as private. But Maybe I'm missing the point? Yeah, you are, because if the spending is private, it depends on your having the money t ...

Document Size:	4981
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 19:08:42 PST 2007

11047 [lbo-talk] progress -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 9:41 PM, Paul wrote: > I believe the Heritage Foundation study, with their exquisite sense of > class, tracks the recruits by zip code and use *just* that to > classify them > economically. Hard to believe...but remember the source. It's the data that's available. And it's not a bad proxy, as proxies go. I'm guessing that recruits coming from zip codes like 10027 or 10032 (both Harlem) are not the poorest people in their zip code, either. > A smaller point: ...

Document Size:	5856
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 19:06:07 PST 2007

11048 [lbo-talk] progress -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 7:58 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > The way to radicalize small-town whites would be to organize around > military bases or in the large cities where military pass through, not > in the small towns they come from. Yeah, is anyone doing that now? Doug

Document Size:	4653
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 17:42:53 PST 2007

11049 [lbo-talk] progress -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 7:03 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > White guys from small towns are the type of Americans who tend to be > most overlooked by American leftists, most of whom prefer urban > living. By the way, roughly 1/4 of Americans live in rural areas, and 3/4 in metro areas (1/4 urban, 1/2 suburban). So why is a minority of the pop so appealing to you? Doug

Document Size:	4759
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 16:23:12 PST 2007

11050 [lbo-talk] progress -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 7:03 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > White guys from small towns are the type of Americans who tend to be > most overlooked by American leftists, most of whom prefer urban > living. I urge you to go proselytize in rural white America, and report back on your work. Lead by example! Doug

Document Size:	4696
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 16:21:52 PST 2007

11051 [lbo-talk] progress -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 6:14 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > Doug wrote: > > >> the image of the poverty draft is badly overwrought. >> >> Doug > > > As far as I can tell the hardest evidence for the argument is based > on recruiting practices. American Friends Service Committee has a > lot of info on that. For example, they have a map of the New York > area with recruiting stations correlated with poverty level: > > > http://www.afsc.org/nymetro/sp ...

Document Size:	8396
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 15:42:46 PST 2007

11052 [lbo-talk] progress -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 4:44 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote: > I just saw this from an interview with Mike Davis: > > >> Of course, in reality, it s not white guys in >> the Rangers who make up most of the military >> presence overseas: it s mostly slum kids >> themselves, from American inner cities. I just don't think that's true. Does Davis have any evidence for this? Just the other day, Yoshie was arguing that they were all from the sticks. That's not true either. My s ...

Document Size:	5299
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 14:05:04 PST 2007

11053 [lbo-talk] barbaric? -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 3:58 PM, andie nachgeborenen wrote: > GDP per > capita has doubtless grown over a generation, but > (check me on this, Doug) my understanding is that real > wages are flat or down, while inequality has grown a > great deal. Real cumulative change, 1973-2005 GDP per capita 73.6% median household income 15.8% average hourly wage -11.3% Almost all the gain in median household income happened between 1993 and 1999. Gains of the late 1980s we ...

Document Size:	5149
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 13:26:34 PST 2007

11054 [lbo-talk] barbaric -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 3:21 PM, Dmytri Kleiner wrote: His 12th post of the day. The limit is 3. Doug

Document Size:	4445
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 13:00:30 PST 2007

11055 [lbo-talk] barbaric? -- rank: 1000

On Mar 5, 2007, at 3:02 PM, James Heartfield wrote: > I was going to say, "poor you!" but then I remembered that you live > in the > wealthiest society on earth. And the last time that I visited, I > seem to > remember that it was very pleasant indeed, not least for the excellent > company. And the same for you - excellent company indeed. I'm the last guy to deny material progress and pleasures. But really, James, you should spend more time here before passing a judg ...

Document Size:	5774
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Mar 5 12:30:38 PST 2007