[PEN-L:28690] Re: Vandana Shiva

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 27 Jul 2002, Michael Perelman wrote:

> Regarding the other Michael P.'s idea about the gradual release of
> people from agriculture, in researching classical political economy in
> my book, The Invention of Capitalism, I found that the old classical
> political economists were very much concerned that the dispossession of
> the people in the countryside not occur too precipitously.

Including people like Smith and Stewart?  I thought I remember you saying
they were for it because it kept wages low, and because subsistence was
the biggest obstacle to getting people to submit to capitalist discipline
-- with Stewart saying this overtly and Smith by omission.

Am I remembering right?  But perhaps they still thought there could be too
much of a "good thing?"

Michael