Re: Re: 'Labor Market Dynamics Within Rival Macroeconomic Frameworks'

From: Ian Wright (ian_paul_wright@HOTMAIL.COM)
Date: Mon Jan 05 2004 - 13:17:02 EST


Hello Ajit,

>But don't you think that "across
>countries and across time" those relations of
>productions themselves will not be the same?

I'm thinking abstractly, in terms of the wage-capital relation,
and ignoring pretty much everything else. This feature is
an essential and enduring property of capitalism, although
I of course would not deny that there are plenty of other
kinds of social relations that determine the full concrete
reality of particular economies. The invariance across time
refers to the last hundred years or so of advanced capitalist
countries.

Maybe your qualification relates to Jerry's objection that it is
not possible to speak of the breakdown of a system when that
system has shown itself to be adaptable. I think there is sometimes
an abstraction mismatch when we speak of a capitalist system
-- it depends on what is included under the heading.
For example, if my car breaks down when I travel to work
I can still get there if I walk. The whole system didn't break
down, as I did get to work, but a part of the system did,
or functioned poorly etc.

-Ian.

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