CAPITAL vs LABOR

rffrydr · Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:22 pm Post subject: CAPITAL vs LABOR

Of course this the oldest and fundamental cyle when it comes to econmics--and it precisely because of this that the answers to questions of it's twists and turns cannot fully or finally be answered within its confines.

The ultimate direction will come, I think, from the greater worLd of politics and culture. While, doubtless, there are times when economics has held both within it's grip, i.e. the rise of japan in the 70's or, say, the french love of "hollyvooood." Ultimately, culture will decide.

Presently, in regards to the latest newsletter, we have the GM Chairman and his open "letter" to america. This may be dismissed as a Chrysler-like appeal for Washington to bail GM's fast ailing ass out (I, incidently bought their bonds a few weeks back) but it is framed in cultural terms, what we want as a society and how those values will (or can) be expressed our society's companies.

I would agree with you, Henry, that the american autos mark an ending in the cycle of cap vs labor. But I would say just the opposite. The Unions have been running GM for a long time: production has been set for at least these last years on employment balance rather to any regard for efficiency or profitability. GM and the american autos represent union power in its deaththroes. GM, for instance, allows for smoking on assembly lines and "ghost-workers." For christ's sake! the same company responsible for these guy's long-term (spiraling) health care!! The notion of an "economy" of the american auto has long-since collapsed under the weight of its own bloated worker. No amount of "offshore outsourcing" will save the Corvette (unlike the "american flyer" red wagon), captial and labor are bound by time, geography and scale. All things that "market-economies" don't handle well, if at all.

But yes, the cycle is turning, it is turning back in the direction of labor and it is turning exactly at the lowest rung in labor, where you would expect it to begin. The pinnacle of captial power is not GM but WalMart/Microsoft. The change is well underway. You mention the movies, the PR (Walmart now HAS to sponsor NPR, Katrina etc) on our side. But labor is reasserting itself where it wasn't supposed to exist: China.

Walmart doesn't site new manufacturing in coastal china anymore: good help is hard to find and even the assemblylines are not only not cheap anymore; they are beginning to cost. Agricultural reform, ironically price liberalization, is keeping more peasants on the farm and off the streets in Gunangzhou.

The first hint of this change was there for those who wanted to look 5 years ago when the 1billion plus dreamt cellphone distribution topped out at 250 million and China Mobile, the "darling" of "class A" shares went flatline. China now, as always, is bifurcated place, a land of those who can and those who will never be allowed to try. Those chinese who can make it work, make China the factory to the world, are in shorter supply than we imagine, and it's now becoming clear that limits are being pressed and costs going higher.

"Environmentalism" has come late and come by necessity in china. But it is now becoming a badge of western standards--a cultural marker. The proof is in the money: they are now hiring Vancouver companies to clean their water, for example. The most powerful symbol of all now driving China, the 2008 Olympics, is really all about acceptence, admittance, as western power--albeit a la japan! Can the transformation of labor from the country writing the greatest transformation of labor in the modern world be far behind?

It was in the concept of "shareholder" that chinese communism and western capitalism were united. Is there a more "communist" idea than this??? As capital has now found its resurgent power through this concept it has also, I think we are beginning to see, opened the door to its complement and opposite, labor.

And what of the "market," the ultimate driver of this capital investment. It takes more than a belief to fully exploit the labor/capital dynamic. It takes a complete infrastructure, all the little things that we in thw west now take for granted: the ability and right of transfer for real property, stable and fair legal framework for righting economic wrongs, a neighbor who wnats what you understand he wants etc. etc. etc. IN RE: Sachs vs. Soviet Empire

Take advertising (please!), the mother's milk of captialism, how much can you sell to those who can't read or write, what does "deoderant and tampons" mean to household without hot water?

It hasn't taken long for a generation of "little emporers" to appear in China. How much longer for a "fair and decent living."? Having a lot of poeple doesn't necessarily mean having and endless supply of labor. A means of production matching the modern needs of consumption I think will be self-limiting. --And come sooner than labor.

The pinacle for Capital in this cycle may have been marked by Microsoft and Yahoo selling out its represented western value of "free spreech" opening the door to cold Chinese cellblock for a few of its "customers." The reaction is already here (rembering Dow 1968-1982).

Next up: ROBOTS.
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject:

The Two Germanys Which one is not like the other?:

http://tinyurl.com/y989sch
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:01 am Post subject:

Goldman Sachs taking on a new moniker: giant squid

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/07/16/62436/vampire-squid-illustrated-edition/
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rffrydr · Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:36 am Post subject:

Good 'ol UAW...that's what Ford gets for perpetuating this Wall St. fiction that they are independent.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091027/OPINION03/910270324/1148/rss25
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HenryTo · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

Saw a huge sign at UCLA today along the lines of "Communism is good; Capitalism is bad." Neither capital nor labor would be a good place to be going forward.

rffrydr · Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 6:08 pm Post subject:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1278601326&play=1

Michael would buy a house....see "Greed born of Fear." Would the last man in the room please turn out the lights.
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rffrydr · Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:36 am Post subject:

Labor now and then:

http://flare.prefuse.org/launch/apps/job_voyager
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rffrydr · Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 10:42 pm Post subject:

It's man and township vs. the big bad lenders. People have the crazy idea that it is them who are being bailed out.

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/2163510-p2.html
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rffrydr · Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2009 9:30 pm Post subject:

Forbes' "pig-killing" lists in china:

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14376281
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:19 am Post subject:

rffrydr · Posted: Wed May 20, 2009 10:14 pm Post subject:

The shrinking world of labor...financing:

http://www.app.com/article/20090520/BUSINESS/90520138/1003/Burned+by+Obama++fund+managers+are+wary+of+lending+to+union-heavy+businesses
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 10:21 am Post subject:

Strikes BK'd until 2015 for Chrysler:

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a5dC6O3Z2H.Y&refer=home
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rffrydr · Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 2:52 pm Post subject:

Firing a teacher because they can't teach....no way:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers3-2009may03,0,679507.story
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject:

The UAW must be reading Marketthoughts Laughing

http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2009/04/uaw-agrees-to-ban-strikes/
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rffrydr · Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 8:23 am Post subject:

So...out of the ashes of finance (and the 401K) we have the employee owner:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUKTRE53R5L820090428?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

Are airlines the model? It's assumed, with much gnashing and arms stretched skyward, that this means that capital has become labor. But is this not a two-way street?
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rffrydr · Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 1:03 pm Post subject:

So you wanna get rid of the bad money...been there, done that. Hint: it's not gold that becomes the currency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUig0lFHDDw
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