Traverse Machine

[Mark Kohut]

good stuff BUT a great

last line...simply great...

Thanks,
Mark

On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 11:37 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Vineland picks up where GR left off.
>
> GR is, in part, about labors relationship with the giant conglomerates
> of the 1970s, with post-WWII America.
>
>  Vineland explores the decline, and even the collapse of the stable
> and steady giant conglomerates: GE, G&W, ITT, RCA, AT&T, IBM....as
> they face the challenges of competition, as increasing returns from
> size suddenly become bloated complacency.
>
> The garage geeks take big risks, and while most fail, a few are enough
> to make a major impact: Apple, Microsoft.
>
> Jobs at the Big Olds decline and jobs are created at smaller companies.
>
> The BIGS turn lean and mean, spin off, LBO, M&A....VC and so on and
> labor has no chance.
>
> VL & Nostalgia has been much discussed and VL is certainly a novel in
> the tradition of American labor literature that honors 4 bread and
> butter ideas that we find in American Lit.
>
> 1. division of labor argues that those that do dangerous work get higher
> wages.
> 2.work that requires more skill, skill that is acquired not in months
> but in years, get higher wages.
> 3. work that is irregular, because of weather, for example,  steel
> worker in Boston, get higher wages
> 4. Pride / Trust in work requires higher wages
>
> Zoyd is a parody of the lost wages.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 7:55 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> > In Robert Reich's first movie, he had a few charts. One was of
> > the growth of GDP in America since WW2...
> > charted with the growth of
> > median income in Americas since WW2.......
> > And a chart of union membership in America over that time.
> >
> > I was in about 1977 that the growth of GDP slowly but noticeably started
> to
> > outpace the growth of median income, which flattened over time.
> >
> > It was at about that time that the fast decline of union membership
> started.
> > (If I remember it was leaking away even earlier in the decade.) Reich
> > pointed out how non-union wage growth also slowed. Union monetary
> > achievements helped all workers.
> >
> > I am working with a retired economist--one who was part of the
> leadership in
> > founding
> > the radical economists group of the 60s, early 70s. I am bringing his
> best
> > book, The Money Mandarins
> > back into print with him, revised, updated, but the bulk of the analysis
> is
> > the same since real predictive insight can be like that.
> > He basically predicted all of the adverse effects of globalization on
> > workers.
> >
> > When I told him the above examples from Reich's film, he told me this,
> still
> > baffled and self-surprised at it.He said that around that time, in his
> > prime, he poured through scads of data--to see economic
> > trends, anomalies, truths....this was worldwide but he was working in
> > Europe, unlike many American economists
> > so.......
> >
> > This became unexplainably evident to him.....slowed growth and even a
> > visible decline in economic value of wages WORLDWIDE (even as many of the
> > most poor in major countries--China, India, for example---forged
> forward, as
> > has steadily happened)
> > which, according to classical head-in-ass econ theory, will always
> balance
> > with new "creatively destructive" growth of
> > new occupations...
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 7:36 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> There’s also the fact that many traditional jobs are no longer very
> >> well paid. The 1980s recession, timed with the beginning of the Reagan
> >> years, was the beginning of a progressive destruction of unions in an
> >> industry which had at a time been the centre of the most militant
> >> labor struggles in the history of the American west. In 1978, a
> >> forestry worker with no high-school diploma could earn up to 40% more
> >> than the state’s average wage. Now, fellers can earn as little as $18
> >> an hour.
> >>
> >>
> >> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/23/logging-
> industry-work-employment-oregon
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >
> >
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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