Kevin Raybould, over at Lean Left digs down to the roots of what the Democratic Party claims to stand for.
I think his analysis misses a few things…it’s no longer labor vs. capital, but labor vs. capital vs. information…and I’ll argue that this recent bubble is the fleecing of capital by the information workers. But deep down, I’ve always felt that the Democrats should be the party that could help my old administrative assistant…a 32-year old single mom, making about $26,000/year, with minimal benefits and no clear career track.
Who speaks for her??
Certainly not the current crop of Democrats…
A.L.
Date: 07/24/2002 00:00:00 AM
A.L. — I don’t own a house. I have no hope of owning a house within the next three to five years, and probably never. I will probably have to work until I’m 75 or 80 because I have little hope at this point of building up a significant retirement nestegg.I’m 41, make good money, but made bad choices financially when I was younger. So I live with that. Most of my adult life I earned wages that were right around poverty level. If it weren’t for the Internet thing, I’d probably still be there. Learning Web development is probably one of the two really smart things I’ve done in my life (the other being marrying my wife, of course). Nobody helped me. Nobody has hindered me. I’m were I’m at today because of my choices, both good and bad.Sure, like another poster, I could point to the mistakes my parents made, but ultimately, all responsibility for what I’ve done with my life rides squarely on my shoulders.And the same can be said for every person in this country (except possibly those with serious disabilities). Poverty doesn’t just happen. Being a single mother doesn’t just happen. These are choices, especially in this day and age were systematic discrimination has been eliminated.There are certainly cases where the government can and should help people get on the right track (“a hand up, not a hand out”), but if people, like this single mother you site, has “no clear career track” and is making $26,000 a year (which ain’t bad money in many parts of the country), then she’s not the one I would be looking to give assistance to.
Date: 07/24/2002 00:00:00 AM
What is the income level for “upper-middle” these days, anyway? A couple of years back I heard a radio story that started with the headline, “If you make more than $75,000 per year stop thinking of yourself as middle class….”
Date: 07/23/2002 00:00:00 AM
A.L.I guess I am just not sure why information qualifies as a different category. Like I said, to me, it seems to fit the category of a natural resource, at least in behavior. How is information different than say, steel? In the 19th century, one could have argued that control and manipulation of steel was just as important to economic success as information is today.Oh, and remind me to show the letter congratulating me on vesting in stock options for a company that no longer exists 🙂
Date: 07/23/2002 00:00:00 AM
Kevin:I’ve thought about this v. hard, and yes, information can look like capital, but so can labor (experienced skilled workforce). I strongly believe that the key to unwinding the Marxian misunderstanding of modern capitalism is that it is based in large part on information, and that value inures to information and those who posess and manipulate it, much as it does to labor and capital.I ‘participated’ in the recent runup…always took cash as a consultant instead of equity. I’m not only talking about the dot-con boomlet, but about the whole class of professional managers who managed to structure themselves entrepeneurial-level rewards for being managerial bureaucrats.A.L.
Date: 07/23/2002 00:00:00 AM
Who speaks for her? She speaks for herself. Who else should speak for her?We’ve all got to live with the choices we make in life.I should know, I’ve made some pretty shitty ones over the years. Nobody has ever offered to speak for me.
Date: 07/23/2002 00:00:00 AM
“but labor vs. capital vs. information…and I’ll argue that this recent bubble is the fleecing of capital by the information workers.”Interesting thought. I would argue that information is, in a business environment, a form of capital. That is, in order to use the information, you need a way to gather it, a way to store it, a way to transmit it. All of those are fairly capital intensive. I guess I see information as more of natural resource.As for fleecing capitalists, I would argue that the dotcomers were one of the few areas that recognized the true value of their employees (well, some of their employees) and attempted to build that recognition into the compensation schemes. Unfortunately, a lot of the business plans were either widely optimistic, or complete fantasies.
Date: 07/23/2002 00:00:00 AM
Whoever can reach the great mass of white-collar unskilled labor will win the next hundred elections. IMO, the best way to do this is through a mix of social liberalism and economic populism, with a dose of fiscal conservatism. Howard Dean’s platform comes close, but he probably won’t get a chance.
Date: 00:00:00 AM
Howard:C’mon. The game has implicit structure to it. I just bought a half-million dollar house (the cheapest in a modest neighborhood, here in the South Bay); I will get almost $1,100/month from the Federal and State government in housing subsidy;The rules are stacked. They favor the upper- and upper-middle classes. It would be nice to have rules that were at least neutral. I might even be willing to see them tip a bit to the side of those on the bottom half…hence the ‘liberal’ in my name…A.L.