[PEN-L:1761] Re: Minimum wages in real terms

[dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx (Doug Henwood)]

At 12:36 PM 12/6/95, Paul Zarembka wrote:

>Production workers in manufacturing and Marxist's concept of productive
>labor are not the same thing, the latter is much broader and includes all
>who produce value and surplus value.  Wolff had the productive workers
>about 52% of the labor force in 1967, if I remember correctly (Shaikh's
>book is back at our library).

Of course they're not the same thing, but I was just throwing out an
example off the top of my head to make the point that it's a pretty small
share of the workforce. There's productive in the sense of
producing-a-profit, and there's productive in the sense of creating value.
I'll bet it's a lot lower than 52% now. Government, FIRE, retail,
promotion, guard/supervisory, etc., have grown.

Is NYNEX worker Maggie Coleman a productive worker?

Doug

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