[PEN-L:4618] Re: PEN-L digest 671

["Anthony D'Costa" <dcosta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Could I get Mark Selden's post?  Somehow I seem to have missed it.
Dependency is dead but the consumption of it in the US is alive and well.
The bleeding heart liberal shows up in the dependency-type arguments.
Besides, the world-system perspective, seems to have a life of its own.
As for Bill Warren goes, I think "crude stagism" aside he is quite on
the mark.  Imperialism is truly a pioneer of capitalism.  It is
capitalist development in a marxist sense that is taking place in Asia
and imperialism (export of capital) is significantly influencing it.  So
those who believe in (not celebrate) capitalist development for future
social change ought to reconsider small doses of imperialism (foreign
direct investment) and marketization.

Anthony D'Costa
Univ of Washington, Tacoma

On Wed, 5 Apr 1995, Jim Devine wrote:

> Mark Selden is accurate (as far as I can tell) about the rise
> in working-class living standards in East Asia. However, I would
> be very careful with market measures of economic welfare and focus
> issues such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy
> (factors he mentions). These countries are undergoing marketization
> which means that many goods that were once distributed through non-
> market means (and often missed by measures of GDP) are now
> counted in GDP. I also wouldn't use PPP valuations because
> one can't pay one's debts with PPP-valued money. Current
> exchange rates seem more useful, though one might use a
> weighted average over time to smooth out the bumps.
>
> I'm not sure what paradigm Mark sees as being shattered by
> the rise in East-Asian working-class living standards.
> Dependency is threatened, but I didn't see that one as
> relevant. (I thought it was a dead paradigm.)  Classical
> Marxism is not threatened (unless one goes the way of
> Bill Warren).
>
> Bruce McFarling is also accurate that much or all of Africa
> and Latin America is suffering from declining working-class
> standards of living.
>
> It would be a useful project to see if working-class living
> standards are falling on a world scale or not (and to what
> extent they are rising or falling).
>
> At this point, I want to say _mea culpa_. Excessive work
> and everyday-life complications have made me sloppy during
> two days.  What is relevant to my thinking (which I did not
> make explicit) is not the absolute standard of living of
> the working class, but the standard of living _relative
> to_ labor productivity. If the wage falls relative to
> labor productivity, the rate of surplus-value rises, by most
> measures. If this relative fall is sustained, it creates
> underconsumption tendencies which can drag down world
> growth.
>
> in pen-l solidarity and slightly depressed,
>
> Jim Devine
> jndf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles, CA 90045-2699 USA
> 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950
> "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way
> and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante.
>