Re: Re: Re: Economics and Literature

[Peter Dorman <dormanp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Like lots of folks on pen-l, I worked in factories and such not to gain
enlightenment but to make money.  True, I ended up learning some useful
lessons (some of which can't be found in books), but if I were independently
wealthy and had spent all that time reading instead, I probably would have
learned some other, equally or more useful stuff.  And there are lots of very
orthodox economists who can point to the grimy jobs they held before they were
credentialed.

Experience is a great teacher, but even great teachers don't reach all their
students...

Peter

Louis Proyect wrote:

> At 04:26 PM 9/11/00 -0700, you wrote:
> >It would be interesting to get validation that Marx never had first-hand
> experience with farms or factories.  I
>
> This reminded me of something that I forgot to bring up. It was mentioned
> that the sociologist Buroway worked in a factory to get first-hand
> information. A while back I xeroxed the book that contained Buroway's
> reflections on factory work and the class struggle and sent it down to Tom
> Kruse in Bolivia, who had taken a job in a factory himself as part of a
> similar project. I can think of a number of people on PEN-L who would
> benefit from such an experience, particularly in a country like Bolivia or
> Honduras.
>
> Louis Proyect
> Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/