[ExI] Call To Libertarians

[BillK]

2011/2/20 Max More wrote:
>
> How you do you reconcile your view with the reality that over the entire span
> of "capitalism", real wages have risen and risen and risen?
>
> I put "capitalism" in quotes, because it's a term created by Karl Marx and is
> a vague term used to describe a wide range of both market-based and
> state-influenced economic systems.
>
>


That is a difficult claim to justify. I suspect many sources would
quote the opposite.

We live in an inflationary society, so in the past, prices generally
rose along with wages, but not necessarily all at the same time or at
the same rate. Results depend on which periods of time that you try to
measure.

Price inflation is difficult to measure because different items have
different rates of inflation. e.g. food, energy, housing, gold, etc.
And mass production tends to decrease the price of manufactured goods
to offset increases in other prices.

Similarly with wages, some wages might increase, some might decrease,
and the job market itself might increase or decrease.

With globalisation, since about 1990, western real wages have felt the
effect of cheap labour from third world countries, both by reducing
wages and increasing unemployment in first world countries.

Kris's claim that capitalism creates a world-wide "race to the bottom"
of wages could perhaps be rephrased as 'aggressive globalisation
creates a world-wide "race to the bottom" of wages'.

So, overall. I would say the jury is still out on the question.


BillK