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4051 [lbo-talk] strike wave! -- rank: 1000

Well, not really. The virtual disappearance of the strike from the USA: http://lbo-news.com/2010/08/18/strike-wave/

Document Size:	4656
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 18 13:51:54 PDT 2010

4052 [lbo-talk] new EPI paper on social security -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2010, at 3:26 PM, Somebody Somebody wrote: > Somebody: Here's what I don't understand: why would it be such a bad thing if health care costs continued to rise? The U.S. is a post-industrial nation with an aging population - what precisely is supposed to take priority over the health of it's citizens? So, today the U.S. is spending about 16% of GDP on health care - is something terrible supposed to happen when that reaches 30%? Cause we're getting crap for it. Countries that spend f ...

Document Size:	5208
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 18 12:34:37 PDT 2010

4053 [lbo-talk] profits -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2010, at 8:18 AM, Michael Pollak wrote: > But the first irony is that Smith is doing it in this chapter in favor of the land-owning class. Up to a point: > When the public deliberates concerning any regulation of commerce or police, the proprietors of land never can mislead it, with a view to promote the interest of their own particular order; at least, if they have any tolerable knowledge of that interest. They are, indeed, too often defective in this tolerable knowledge. They ...

Document Size:	5338
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 18 12:25:06 PDT 2010

4054 [lbo-talk] Juan Cole: 1981 Osirak raid was a big mistake -- rank: 1000

On Aug 18, 2010, at 1:30 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > clearly their purposes have nothing to do with Iranian nuclear > intentions. Why do you say that? Once a country develops nukes, it becomes essentially un-attackable. The U.S. can rattle all the sabers it likes at North Korea, but it won't dare bomb a country that could incinerate Seoul in 15 minutes. Doug

Document Size:	5111
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Aug 18 12:11:23 PDT 2010

4055 [lbo-talk] profits -- rank: 1000

On Aug 17, 2010, at 5:17 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Nor can I imagine many economists, bourgeois or not, writing as well! I > read Smith in a somewhat peculiar context. It was in the midst of a > severe depression which made it impossible for me to read anything at > all complex --EXCEPT while peddling an exercycle. So for about an hour a > day, 5 days a week, I would sit peddle away on an exercycle and read > Smith! I reread _Theories of Surplus Value_ the same way during another ...

Document Size:	5010
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 17 15:25:59 PDT 2010

4056 [lbo-talk] profits -- rank: 1000

On Aug 17, 2010, at 1:49 PM, Eric Beck wrote: > I don't necessarily disagree with a lot of what you say here, but this > bit, which you return to frequently, is kind of silly. People do > actually read stuff and are convinced by the Me, I was bent at an early age by Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. If only we had a book that good. Doug

Document Size:	4729
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 17 11:03:06 PDT 2010

4057 [lbo-talk] profits -- rank: 1000

On Aug 17, 2010, at 12:21 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > The concrete content of "country," as always, remains ambiguous. As does > the meaning of "ruin" when applied to nations. Who or what gets ruined? More from the same Smith passage: > The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [i.e, the capitalist class], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully e ...

Document Size:	5345
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 17 10:39:56 PDT 2010

4058 [lbo-talk] profits -- rank: 1000

On Aug 17, 2010, at 12:21 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > Doug Henwood wrote: >> >> > " it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to > ruin." > > The concrete content of "country," as always, remains ambiguous. As does > the meaning of "ruin" when applied to nations. Who or what gets ruined? Check out the full context. Smith was offering an explicit class analysis. Capitalists care about maximizing profits, often at the expe ...

Document Size:	4973
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 17 09:59:31 PDT 2010

4059 [lbo-talk] profits -- rank: 1000

I quoted Adam Smith from memory on the relationship between profitability and decadence, and someone sent me the full quote offlist. It's a good one: > "The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operations of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all those plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension of the society. On the contrary, it is naturally low ...

Document Size:	5372
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Aug 17 07:40:51 PDT 2010

4060 [lbo-talk] Manufacturing fetish? -- rank: 1000

On Aug 16, 2010, at 10:15 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > My understanding is profits have been soaring on both the manufacturing and service side Yup. Doesn't Adam Smith have a line about how profits are highest in countries speeding most rapidly towards ruin? Doug

Document Size:	4756
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Mon Aug 16 19:22:36 PDT 2010

4061 [lbo-talk] The Banality of anti-Israel Lobby Doctrine -- rank: 1000

On Aug 15, 2010, at 5:25 AM, double bluff quoted Petras: > the Zionist lobby has successfully blocked the major oil companies Now this is loopy. The Zionist lobby is more powerful than Big Oil? The Republican party is practically a subsidiary of the energy industry, and it's fiercely pro-Israel. Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, is more loyal to Israel than his former employers (who did, as I recall, invest in Iran)? It's hard to take anything seriously from this guy after reading a sent ...

Document Size:	5272
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sun Aug 15 05:18:22 PDT 2010

4062 [lbo-talk] James Dean hated LA, missed NY -- rank: 1000

<http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/08/wow-am-i-fucked-up.html> 4.26.54 FAMOUS ARTISTS CORPORATION Dearest Barbara I don't like it here. I don't like people here. I like it home (N.Y.) and I like you and I want to see you. Must I always be miserable? I try so hard to make people reject me. Why? I don't want to write this letter. It would be better to remain silent. "Wow! Am I fucked up" Got here on a Thurs. went to the desert on Sat., weeks latter to San Francisco. I DONT KNOW WHE ...

Document Size:	6311
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Aug 14 18:17:51 PDT 2010

4063 [lbo-talk] Read Ayn Rand -- rank: 1000

My god: http://worldsbiggestwriting.com/

Document Size:	4509
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Aug 13 08:55:41 PDT 2010

4064 [lbo-talk] Modern Times needs your help -- rank: 1000

I love this bookstore. Help them out! http://mtbs.com/weneedyourhelp.html

Document Size:	4704
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 12 18:23:03 PDT 2010

4065 [lbo-talk] The Banality of anti-Israel Lobby Doctrine -- rank: 1000

On Aug 12, 2010, at 12:56 PM, Michael Smith wrote: > (By the Pawn Theory I mean the view that Israel and its actions are > simply emanations and entailments of American imperial necessity; > vulgar Chomskyism, you might call it.) How about this: both countries use each other for their own purposes. Ours is bigger, richer, and more heavily armed than theirs, which provides certain advantages in the relationship. Doug

Document Size:	5146
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Thu Aug 12 10:18:24 PDT 2010