Re: [OPE] Neoconservative Idiocy: How An Unconstrained Lust for Profit and Power Implodes

Yes Michael, but if they are not to be employed, and with a permanent
reserve army of easily replaceable individuals around, why bother? Better
weakened and dulled surely? 'Role playing' the capitalist requires a little
more ruthlessness. 33% of US black families are on the poverty line, why
would the local bourgeoisie want to pay for clinics for them with no
profitable enterprise to employ them with?

paul bullock

----- Original Message -----
From: "michael perelman" <michael@ecst.csuchico.edu>
To: "Outline on Political Economy mailing list" <ope@lists.csuchico.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 11:59 PM
Subject: [OPE] Neoconservative Idiocy: How An Unconstrained Lust for Profit
and Power Implodes

>I can understand the attraction of an unconstrained lust for profit and
>power, but I am puzzled by the stupidity of its practitioners. I'm
>presently researching the life and work of William Petty, more than three
>centuries ago. Petty was an avaricious land pirate, who is willing to move
>entire populations from one country to another and promoted wars in order
>to win favor with the government, but Petty was not stupid.
>
> For example, Petty, who is trained in medicine, realized the economic
> benefits of a healthy population. He even called for clinics to care for
> orphans and poor children.
>
> I was struck by a recent Wall Street Journal article that reminded me of
> Petty's intelligence. David Wessel reported on a paper from the Chicago
> branch of the Federal Reserve Board, showing how children's health care
> boosted test scores. The study itself pointed to a relatively obvious
> outcome, I wondered why so little attention has been paid to the economic
> payoffs from better health care -- especially in the mainstream media.
>
> Here is a snippet from the articlet:
>
> Wessel, David. 2009. "Wider Health-Care Access Pays Off." Wall Street
> Journal (8 October): p. A2.
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125493500031971173.html#mod=todays_us_page_one
>
> Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Working Paper 2008-20
>
> "Kenneth Chay of Brown University, Jonathan Guryan of the University of
> Chicago's Booth School of Business and Bhashkar Mazumder of the Federal
> Reserve Bank of Chicago ... (link) improvements in test scores of black
> teenagers from the South in the 1980s to improved health care they
> received as children after Southern hospitals were integrated in the
> 1960s. The bottom line, in a working paper circulated by the Chicago Fed,
> is this: "Improved post-neonatal health among blacks born between the
> early 1960s and early 1970s ... led to long-term improvements in the
> academic and cognitive skills of these cohorts as teenagers."
>
> read more at
>
> http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/neoconservative-idiocy-how-an-unconstrained-lust-for-profit-and-power-implodes/
>
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA
> 95929
>
> 530 898 5321
> fax 530 898 5901
> http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
> _______________________________________________
> ope mailing list
> ope@lists.csuchico.edu
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>

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Received on Thu Oct 15 19:21:22 2009