Branko Milanovic
@BrankoMilan
Income inequality, politics, history, soccer
Research prof, Graduate Center CUNY; Visiting prof III, LSE
Author of "The Great Global Transformation".
1.1K Following 177.3K Followers
The irony of Russia is the best times for ordinary people in the past 120+ years were the boring years of Brezhnev's "stagnation" (zastoi).
The point is this: decentralized capitalists that were excellent in squeezing workers for 40 years of neoliberal policies have now met, unexpectedly, a centralized capitalist (aka the Chinese state) that beats them at their own game. And like a character playing chess in Bergman's "Seventh Seal", they just want to wipe off the chessboard. But it is not that simple.
My new short essay:
Don’t ask me about my profits, but let’s talk about your wages
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I listened tonight to a @AEI debate on trade, US and China and I learned that there were two theories of international trade.
Theory 1. If you are stronger and win, free trade. To be taught in schools while the assumptions hold.
Theory 2. If you are weaker and cannot win, close the markets. And assume that nobody has ever heard of Theory 1.
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"The worker perishes if capital does not keep him busy. Capital perishes if it does not exploit labour-power, which, in order to exploit, it must buy. The more quickly the capital destined for production – the productive capital – increases, the more prosperous industry is, the more the bourgeoisie enriches itself, the better business gets, so many more workers does the capitalist need, so much the dearer does the worker sell himself. The fastest possible growth of productive capital is, therefore, the indispensable condition for a tolerable life to the labourer."
Marx, Wage labor and capital, 1847.
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