The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(02-23-2021, 06:46 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(02-23-2021, 01:10 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(02-23-2021, 12:10 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(02-22-2021, 09:15 PM)Einzige Wrote:

(02-22-2021, 09:10 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Discussing capitalism with Einzige on the partisan divide page. Does that mean Marxism is one side of the divide now? (I know the Republicans and Classic Xer say so.....)

Communism is - slowly - becoming a power unto itself again, against both capitalist liberalism and conservatism.

The division of wealth is rising to the top of flaws in the culture that must be addressed.  Not yet, but soon, as the turnings turn.  The problem that Marx foresaw will eventually be acted on.  But by that time violent revolution will not be the dominant way that democracies change the culture.  That is so Industrial Age.  When Marx's great problem is finally addressed, it will not be by the method that Marx predicted.

I certainly agree.  We're moving inexorably away from the true labor value of goods and services that Marx leaned on as justification for his theories, because human labor is being displaced by machines.  Project a saeculum into the future.  Is there any doubt that the only human labor needed will be limited to innovation and the arts. The rest will be provided as a form of recreation -- someway to wile away the day and make our progeny feel good about themselves.

Labor is mainly being displaced by foreign trade policies and machines to a lesser extent. Are you getting rich off doing business with China? Are you kicking back and living of a dividend check or stocks associated with Chinese trade or getting a kick back for use of ports or a political kick back to ensure lopsided trade deals remain in place?

Note well: China itself is becoming more prosperous, and it is increasingly pushing economic activity that depends upon ultra-cheap labor to poorer countries than itself. 

Because of the size of the Chinese population, the world neatly divides into three groups in economics: countries richer than China, China, and countries poorer than China. 

As is typical, countries leaving the agrarian age typically start their industrialization with labor-intense manufacturing that depends upon the ready availability of super-cheap labor, such as textiles and toys. The American textile industry that once hired so many workers in New York City and New England about 120 years ago moved largely to the American South... and then completely outside the United States. Try finding clothes made in the USA. Much the same pattern applies to the electronics industry, in which almost the only electronics made in the USA are those for defense contractors or for specialized purposes in small numbers. I remember when many televisions were made in the USA. The only ones made in the USA are now strictly those that have some 'final assembly" process here. Of course, that was when many of the televisions were heavy console TV's with CRT tubes and expensive furniture around them. 

At a certain time, the big corporations in America were manufacturers. Now they are more importers. A TV with the "RCA" brand was made in the USA. Now all that is American about that TV is a trademark once owned by a corporate entity that long ago sold out to General Electric, which then sold out to Thomson... the brand name is a ghost.