politics, economy and employment & labour
This is a different post from my normal posts. It is a primer and I must ask indulgence from many readers for whom this is all too well-known and obvious. Why do I write it then? Because recently I was several times surprised by the casualness with which people talk of “labour theory of value” apparently […]
Recent discussions about the “advent of robots” have some rather unusual features. The threat of robots replacing humans is seen as something truly novel, possibly changing our civilization and way of life. But in reality this is nothing new. Introduction of machinery to replace repetitive (or even more creative) labor has been applied on a […]
Today I read an article on shortages and economic collapse in Venezuela. The reason why there are huge lines in front of the stores was the same one known to any student of socialist economies: state stores sell heavily subsidized goods and the demand for such goods exceeds their supply. Then, many people buy much […]
Living in a post-modern city like New York has many advantages but some disadvantages too. Among the latter is the absence of bookstores. Practically the only bookstore that I go to in midtown Manhattan is owned by Kinokuniya, a Japanese company, and it carries some 90% Japanese books, whether in Japanese or in English, by […]
Let me start by enquiring about the importance assumed by inequality in the public debate during these last years. As we know, inequality has been marginalised both in academia and in politics – also and especially on the left, which should have been the most sensitive to social issues. Then, all at once, with the […]
Despite the unprecedented attention that income and wealth inequality has received in this year’s presidential campaign in the United States and in several recent elections in Europe, one cannot but have the impression that, for many centrist politicians, inequality is just a passing fad. Their belief is, I think, that once the economies return to […]
I have always been a strong believer that geography determines one’s worldview (I think it is de Gaulle who is credited for saying that “history is applied geography”). When you spend one month in Europe traveling to various places, you just cannot avoid the biggest issue in Europe today: migration. So let me go briefly over […]
Several days ago Steven Hill presented at the Graduate Center CUNY in New York his new book “Raw Deal: How the ‘Uber Economy’ and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers”. It discusses (according to Steven’s presentation – I have not read the book yet) the decline of trade unions, the future of jobs and robotics. It […]
This is an interesting idea and I think that it will gradually become more popular. The idea is simple: the presence of the ideology of socialism (abolition of private property) and its embodiment in the Soviet Union and other Communist states made capitalists careful: they knew that if they tried to push workers too hard, […]
Sometimes seeing things, even when one is prepared for them, is helpful in focusing the mind. A few days ago, as I got out of a bus that takes passengers from the Malpensa airport in Milan to the Central Station, I was struck by the number of people, obviously African migrants, camping in the piazza in […]
