Jerry:
>Now why was there a labour-power shortage in Japan? I suspect there were a
>number of contingent factors. Wasn't the Japanese government's policy
>towards labor migration [into Japan] a factor that would perpetuate the
>shortage of available labor to exploit? In this sense, the increase in
>wages was affected by *state* policies. Yet, the policies regarding labor
>migration by the Japanese government are not typical of the policies that
>have been pursued by governments in other advanced capitalist nations, who
>have generally favored permitting an increase in migrant or "guest"
>workers when there is a shortage of available labour-power. Of course,
>when there is a crisis and increasing unemployment, state policies
>frequently change -- due, in part, to political pressure put on these
>governments by, among others, trade unions.
>
WPC:
What Jerry says is true, but consider for a moment the future of the
capitalist world economy. Once the process of migration from peasant
agriculture to the cities has been completed world wide in perhaps 50
years time, will not world capitalism be in the same situation
as Japan in the 90s or Britain in the 50s?
Martian imigration is not an option.
Paul Cockshott
wpc@cs.strath.ac.uk
http://www.cs.strath.ac.uk/CS/Biog/wpc/index.html