below are some notes about my guy bob who ran for gov here in the commonwealth this past fall and lost the primary among other reasons becuase he got dorked by the labor crowd they split the vote backing a local hack and letting a lady candidate not worth hilary clintoxes discharge slip past this noble knight of labor the reason seems clear enough the hack runs the legislature the dons of labor figured bob this ain’t your night we need our influence not a dwarf running a suicide campaign against THE MITT at any rate here are some cries for and to my main guy from the past few months --------------------------------------- why wagelings should vote Reich you got to love bob Reich he’s a genuine friend of all you job stiffs out there listen to me , here you can count on him hell if you happen to be a little skill feeble or worse scarcely job worthy bob’s your guy he’s your trumpet your tribune your tout like a pocket Moses he goes fearlessly before the pharaohs of power and profit crying “ let my people go let my people go let them go to the promised land to the land of high yield jobs and fatter wagery let them go and let them prosper and let their children prosper and their children’s children and their children’s children’s children” yes sir BOB’S ready to stand up for you joust with anyone anytime anyplace plain anyone anyone messing with the birth rites of all you regular american guys and gals out there punching time clocks and producing the MAN’S PRODUCT for him all of you hard working wage earning task toppling two legged do it rite shift critters no matter where the BIG BOSS’S got you penned up in this great land of ours why bob even went to Washington eleven or so years ago did a 4 year turn as our countrys secretary of labor broke lances with them all down there every conceivable type of hazardous life form from your infestation strength green backed lobby lizards to all those log rolling buck passing hairy big foots with a seat right in the middle of your congress and as for the bureauchiefs when they were hankering for an ass lick old bob lit their farts instead from the poll swinging pole jerking back room neigh sayers to the klieglite brain drained press monkeys bob doodit he even tussled with a few sour old union dons listen pards when ever your true blue prospects were being over looked or threatened or traded away bob Reich was there lance ready riding out for you maybe he got knocked off his mount a couple three times along the way but he hopped right back on that tiny jack ass of his every time and he always always gave his best kinda hell every last round BOB even crossed weapons with the occasional corporate megaliths the sweat shoppers and strike brakers the job hackers and skill grinders he battled all the corporate ginks magnets and minions alike even god love him the ones crawling all over our fair capitol scrounging for hand outs or trying to get some pointy headed regulator to clip a few wires for ‘em our bob your bob the one and only bob went out into the hinder land to battle the profit marauders rite where they shit he traveled the land looking for the good the bad and the ugly he battled and cajoled and spotlighted railed and rallied and and ..... in his time official Washington had nothing like him there were probably several dozen LARGE MINDED DEMO- HACKADEMICS besides our bob working Washington in those early CLINTON years but the clear standout was our man battlin’BOB Reich most of the others in time proved to be either too puny or too fucking fat nothing but small cats and grey moles in fact our BOB soon found in all of king clinton’s cabinet he’d be fightin the good fight all by his lonesome when it came right down to it king clintons middle guy’s Round table turned out to be a table for one just one one brave armourless knight our BOB undaunghtible bob bull rush BOB alone in pharaoh’s bath house ------------------------------------------------------ i e-mailed this to bob got no response LETTER TO BOB sent Feb 27/2003 after reopenning your magnum O THE WORK OF NATIONS i have an observation for you why not learn a little economics bob even j.s. mill that old puss’n boots knew publicly provided skill training redounds eventually and overwhelmingly to the benefit not of that skills owner but rather to the benefit of that skills employer bob I love you and I voted for you in the dem primary to be our governor but tell me please because i keep seeing public job training presented as your sunday punch tell me how in hell your long touted (since before work of nations) grand plan your “ great American skills enhancement ” your “worker/server airlift” your “toilers of america coprosperity sphere” tell me how is it actually expected to work i mean in reality you know out there in that fierce all on all sell mell look to “ number one” jungle john locke and Robert Morris gave us if ever implemented how would it work I mean down the road a piece when the laws of markets and profits have done their full number on your best of intentions given our glorious ever more free ever more globalized economic system hows it work in a system where all players can trade anywhere invest anywhere and migrate anywhere any time as often as their own conception of best self interest dictates in such a world in such a wide open America down the road how would your skill plan shake out my friends at one world wage claim the following and i got to tell ya its my favorite tit twisting scenario we’ re twenty years into operation skill pump thanks to your plan we have a workforce filled most plentifully with world class skillholders ( symbol workers by the scads) ( to make a bench comparison say todays world class any category ( high skill set) is attained by20%of the U.S. work force AND IN TWENTY YEARS YOUR PROGRAM CAN PULL A FULL 40% UP TO GLOBAL STANDARDS) the question REMAINS hows their pay rate going to fair is pay up or down as a group are these FORTY percent as well off as today’s twenty percent with equivalent world skill standards are they going to be up even or down what if likeAlice they have to run faster and faster just to stay even what if all this public money and the consequent vastly expanded supply of american born of world skill only accelerates a relative wage decline against unskilled wagelings WITH MR MR POCKETING THE DIFFERENCE what if the harsh impersonal reality of market dynamics turn out to be too strong to sustain any temporary relative pay advance..... you got no small country assumption to hide behind here your plan would make waves brother maybe increase skill inventories world wide by 10% whats the elasticity like on that ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- putting aside marginal elasticites that might spell immiserizing growth lets assume the twenty percent with greater then otherwise skills have got to be better off then their lower skilled doubles in the parallel world without your plan but only to the existent the wage change from skill increases is still reflected in wage rates after twenty years dont pretend the other twenty percent who have the skills in both worlds will be better off then if you kept your mouth shut maybe a regressive wage tax could compensate the losers hows that for hard cheese at any rate theres the other side of the ledger how are we going to pay for it is this social investment in job skills worth the cost to those who pay for it enforced social provision ( like .retirement income or in this case skill acquisition) works well if workers bombarded as they are every day with the illusions of purchasable happiness can’t extract out of income streams no matter how wages increase enough to invest sensibly in their future or in this case in their potential market value however if the leakage is considerable maybe we’re looking at another bad rip off of working families in theory as you well know bob since any attack trained economist that has cornered you must have parrotted this pap at you a transfer from the taxed source to the recipients of the consequent transfer has a spillage to begin with and the final benefit may be passed in part or in full to a third party in this case the holder of . any publicly provided skillset still needs to find a purchaser of his or her new skills and these two sides after the bargain tussle will cut up the revenue from skillholders greater use value betwixt them sharing the benefit in some variable combo of higher wages and profits in edgeworthian fairy land infinitesimal seller and infinitesimal buyer are at the mercy of the broader market between the parties there is no bargain path because the game keeps recontracting till no one can improve absenting nonarchimedian agents but with limited recontracting the outcome is indeterminate a text book edgeworth box an offer curve with a broader or narrower range of possible outcomes but given our actual economic structure bob which of our two participants do you think will get the lions share in this struggle the ‘umble wageling or Mr. MASTER AND EQUALLY REGRETTABLY if we turn back again toward the source of this transfer toward those who’s income is the revenue source funding your program tell me bob to whom do you think our freely elected congress will turn our lobby guided lobby gilted lobby gelded US congress THATS RIGHT they’ll grab it from wages despite your other crusade for tax burden shifting can you hear them bob I can “ take it out of payrolls those that get the benefit should pay the cost” and on the face of it skill building benefits the skill holder seems to have fooled even one pint sized Rhodes scholar even it will be billed as just like our other new deal social programs like the god blessed SSI and unemployment comp or those chronic trick or treaters the medi twins as you know in your noble heart we have fools gold social democracy in this country based on an intraclass intergenerational tax and transfer system a uniclass social compact paid by workers to workers for workers all things considered and putting aside any ponzi like aspects its a pretty decent set up even in my crabbed red and rotten mind we would have our selves a veritable workers paradise around here that is if there weren’t any property owners any privately aquireable rents interest and profits any stockholder/bondholder/landlord class the SBL class hungry for the bread of other folks sweat but god knows their out there and then some and don’t give me that guff i met them s/b/l’s and them s/b/l is us you know they 65% ain’t my acrid sum up if your funds for skill training end up coming directly or indirectly out of payroll then bob despite your lovely desire to raise the wagelings up this plan don’t get it done a super bright guy like yourself has got to know this so i ask you why recommend it you’re rigging a semi shrouded tax and transfer scam from workers to stockholders then there’s your newer kick income insurance lets save that for another time in my next unasked for email if per chance you respond to this one I’ll pose you the puzzler “ with an ever more fluent world market for skills and given the celebrated corporate urge to exploit any enhancement of the over supply crunch in labor markets when even skills can be created and purchased abroad at rates below operative wages state side what chance is there in the dead long run for Americas wagelings to soar even with skills and in a future email ill tackle the theory twizzling reality of American symbol workers income success head on what does a world survey of the comparative compensation for services not exposed to import pressures reveal and what is the historical origins of the huge income disparities between members of the same professional group in different countries and similarly large disparities between the relative income rates of members of different pro groups in the same country so many challenges /so few champions again i love ya bobPosted by pinky at February 11, 2003 06:45 PM
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