House of Paine

doc dollar explains

 wanna know 

 what a rilly rad econ con 
is rilly like .....


==========================



" Dear Dr. Dollar:

What is the difference 
between how a "radical" economist 
and a "liberal" economist 
                looks at things? 

       —Loren Lodger  Watertown, Mass.


THE CLASSICAL CLASS PARADIGM  

"In the early 19th century,
 as capitalist industrialization 
transformed Western European society

 --------- EARLY 19TH...
    WE BE  WAY BACKIN HERE
SMOKE STACKS RISEN
RAILS GETTIN LAID .....
LINES OF WAGELINGS ENTERIN' 
THE MILL GATES TO.....
         SEE IT MATES
     IN YER MIND'S  EYE
              SEE IT ------------
 
both advocates and critics 
of the emerging social order
 discussed it in similar terms 

------- GET IT ?

A SHARED PARADIGM 

ROOM FOR 
DIALOGUE
  TIT FOR TAT      
 POW WOW ETC --------------------

To early commentators, 
society was divided 
into broad social classes

—landlords, laborers, capitalists—

defined by their power 
over economic resources. 

------ BROAD "POWER" OVER LABOR POWER ?  -------------


Analyzing this new capitalist system
 entailed understanding 
the creation and distribution 
of the social surplus—production
 that portion of production 
beyond what was necessary 
to feed and house the workers
since that portion provided 
the rents and profits
 of  the non-laboring classes. 

-----  "SINCE " NICE LINKER 
"PROVIDED"  NICE SOFTY ------------

By mid-century, 
thinkers like Karl Marx
 had turned this language 
into a powerful critique 
of capitalism.

--------
WATCH HOW --------


 Marx argued 
that the politically
 disenfranchised 
working classes 

------- " DISENFRANCHISED"
      WHAT ?
  THEY LOST THE VOTE ?
LIKE DIXIE FREEDMEN 
WITH THE ADVENT OF  JIM CROW
SHEEET  
 YOU KNOW WHERE THAT LED...
100 YEARS OF FUCKLE TILL 
  DOC M L K 
AND MISTAH X -------------


"working classes
were victimized 
in industrial factories, 
the fruits of their labor
 stolen and transformed 
into profits 
with which the capitalist class 
created ever-more powerful 
tools of exploitation"

------ STOLEN ? 
AND
   OF COURSE
 THE COURTS THAT BE THEN
                  WOULDN'T RECTO--FIIII
THE CRIME 

CAUSE SNATCHERLY
THE WAGERY 
 DON'T GOT "THE  VOTE " ------------


 "Socialist, communist, 
and other radical movements 
demanded political and economic change"

-------  DEMANDED !!!!
                  THANK GOD -------------

 some calling for revolution 
and an end 
to private ownership 
of the means of production. 

-------  
PROPERTY ABOLITION ?

SURE ENDS STEALING...

AFTER ALL 
 WHY   STEAL 
WHAT THE STATE 
WON'T LET YA KEEP 


AND 
OF COURSE REVOLUTION

VIOLENT REVOLUTION IN FACT 

'CAUSE WHO IN HELL 
WOULD  ACTUALLY VOTE IN 
A PARTY PREPARIN TO BE 
THAT TYPE OF HEAVY ASS GUBMINT
AND IF THEY DID
BY MISCALCULATION...

UNLESS YA DISENFRANCHISED 
THE WHOLE  BROAD ASS CLASS
THEY'D VOTE
 YER PARTY ASS OUT 
SOONER THEN JACK FROSTS  -----



------MOVING ON

THE NEW CLASSICALS -----------

 
" Partly in reaction to this
 a very different language 
for talking about capitalist economies
 emerged by the turn of the 20th century
 Called "neo-classical economics,"

------ T'WAS MOSTLY
   A "LANGUAGE " CHANGE 

NOT CLEAR WHATS AT STAKE HERE

JUST A RELABEL
 AND THE STRUGGLE EVAPORATES 


AS IN 1984  
 
GIVE EM 
A LITTLE RAZZLE DAZZLE

 LIKE

PEACE = WAR 
WAR = PEACE 

OR IS MORE DEEPLY REFIGURED

NOT EVEN JUST 
A  LANGUAGE MORPHO-LOGICAL
     TRANSFORM 

LIKE FROM  CHINESE 
TO ENGLISH

 MORE  
THEN
JUST A  DIFFERENT LANGUAGE 

A LANGUAGE OF A NEW TYPE 

AND
 NOT A NATURAL LANGUAGE AT ALL

BUT MATHEMATICAL

MOSTLY
 MECHANICAL
    ENGINEERING SCHOOL LEVEL CALCULUS 

   AND AS SUCH
       NOT POPULARLY
            APPROACHABLE 

  ZAP ZAP
I'M 
EDITORIALIZING SORRY ------------
  ----------

" it was quickly adopted
 by universities
 as the foundation for a new "economic science."

----- YES HOW MUCH BETTER
   THIS NEW TYPE LANGUAGE BARRIER

 KEEPS
 OUT THE RIFF RAFF ------------------

 The neo-classicals jettisoned 
"classical" concerns 
with social class 
and control over resources.

 
---------- NON SENSE 

"CONTROL OVER RESOURCES"

WHAT A FUZZ BALL...


DO YOU MEAN PROPERTY OWNERSHIP

AS IN OWNERSHIP KLASSES

AS IN MEANS OF PRODUCTION OWNERSHIP KLASSES
AS IN OWNERS
OF  NATURAL RESOURCES AND MACHINARY  ?-------------


In their framework, 
society was simply 
a collection
 of self-interested individuals
 all competing to maximize
 their own economic gains

---- NOTHING NEW HERE

SELF INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS
WAS A WELL TRODDEN ASSUMPTION 
IN THE STATE OF NATURE 
            17TH CENTURY PARADIGM 


THIS NEWEST STAGE ?

THE MARSHALLIAN  UNIFICATION 


WAS ONLY 
BENTHAM-DEMAND /RICARDO-SUPPLY 
    SYNTHESIZED INTO A MARKET WHOLE
             BY  SIMULTANEOUS 
                                       MARGINALIZATION  ---------  

The neo-classical world 
was a world devoid 
of history, politics, institutions,
 or any power, 
save for the coercive power 
of governments. 

-------- 
 YES THATS CALLED MODEL ABSTRACTION
A SIMPLIFICATION
IN ITSELF HARMLESS

ONLY REIFICATION LEADS TO HELL HERE

BEWARE THE REIFIERS ...

AND AS TO  COERCIVE GUB..

NO NO
 PURE MARKET SYSTEMATICS HERE 

NOT EVEN GUBMINTS 

"GUBMINTS?
WHERE'S  THE NEED "
- WALRAS
APING 
 LAPLACE ON GODS IN HIS  SOLAR SYSTEM  - 
--------------


"In this world,
 competitive markets 
were not the product of history
 shaped by concrete political actions

----- STRAW MAN NON SENSE
 AT WORST
 THEIR QUANDOM
   APPEALS 
TO MARKETS  NATURALNESS 
IS NOT AHISTORICISM 

BUT REVERSED  HISTORY 

NOT THEIR
 
"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE MARKET"


BUT YOUR EQUALLY WRONG

"IN THE END WAS THE MARKET" 
 
TO BE PROVOCATIVE
ONE MIGHT CLAIM
THEIR NATURAL  MARKETS 
     ARE ENCRUSTED
 BY  HISTORY'S 
 UNENDING STREAM 
OF  ARTIFICIAL  "RENT" SEEKERS --------------


  
---  TO RE GRAB THE THREAD ...

THEY BELIEVE MARKETS ARE -------

 "the natural form 
of economic organization
 and one to which 
all nations should aspire"

----- KEY HERE IS NATURAL = UNIVERSAL = TIMELESS 
IS PUFFERY

        MEANING ESSENTIALLY THIS:
 
IN THE ABSENSE OF STATE INTERFERENCE 
       MARKETS EMERGE 
       SPONTANEOUSLY
  IN ALL HUMAN SOCIETIES 

AT A MINIMUM 
  MERELY A  MATTER FOR SCHOLARS .....

ITS AGIT PROP VALUE

"LEAVE THE MARKETS ALONE "

KEEPS WINNERS WINNING 

THE REAL ISSUE
 IS ITS PRESENT DAY 
                  SUPERIORITY 
TO ALL NON SPONTANEOUS 
ECONOMIC POLICY SYSTEMS 

THE PROPOSITION 
THAT THE NATURAL 
THE SOPNTANEOUS 
LEFT TO ITSELF
IS  SUPERIOR
     WASBY THE TURN INTO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
AT THE LEAST 150 YEARS OLD 
AN
   18TH CENTURY ENLIGHTENMENT PRODUCT ------


" In competitive markets, 
free individuals
 could work 
or reject work,
 buy or decline buying"

------  KEEP OR SELL YER HOURS ?

MAKES LABOR 
VOLUNTARY LABOR 
VS FORCED  LABOR  

A VOLUNTARY TRANSACTION
EVEN IF NO BARGAIN 

IT IS 
WHAT IT IS 

ITS SUPERIORITY OVER 
ITS PREDECESSOR 
             SERFDOM ?


MOSTLY 
IT LEAVES YOU FREE
TO WALK ON YER BOSS 

YOU CAN SELL 
YOUR SELF 
ELSE  WHERE
NEXT TIME


AS TO 
THE "KEEP IT AT HOME "
                   VALUE OF YOUR LABOR TIME 

BEING AS ITS

BEG  STEAL  
  OR  STARVATION

HOWS THAT FIT  
ON THE BLACK BOARD EQUATION
OTHER THEN AS
NEAR  A ZERO CORNER SOLUTION 
FOR WAGERY
AS POSSIBLE 
ON A TWO KLASS EDGEWORTH BOX  --------------

" Exploitation was ruled out
 by definition."

 
----- NON SENSE
EXPLOITATION 
MERELY NEEDS TO BE INTRODUCED
AS  THE DIFF BETWEEN 
EXCHANGE VALUE PRODUCED 
AND EXCHANGE VALUE RECEIVED

A DIFFERENCE 
QUINTESSENTIALLY REVEALED
WITHOUT OTHER DISTORTIONS
PRECISELY
IN THE NEOCLASSICAL PARDIGM
WITH ITS ASSUMED 
  VOLUNTARY NATURE
OF ALL TRANSACTIONS 
BY ALL PARTIES ON  ALL SIDES---------- 


"If you work for $5 a day,
 that is your decision. 
You could just as easily choose 
to hold out for a higher wage
 or not to work at all. 

------- STRAW DOG  LIFTS LEG  HERE -----------

STOP HERE IF YOU GOT 
SAY ONE OF  R CRUM 
            HEAD COMIX
                  TO READ INSTEAD 
------------------------------


THE RANT TO THE FINISH....



"This neo-classical paradigm
 continues to dominate 
the economics profession ....

What critics today call 
"mainstream" or "orthodox" economics 
    embodies core ideas 
laid out more than a century ago.

 All analysis begins with the assumption
 that economic decisions
 reflect individual preferences 
             and free choice. 

Pick up an economics textbook today 
and flip to the chapter on "consumer behavior" 
and find virtually no mention of advertising. 

------- WAIT 
THE SOCIAL PRODUCTION OF PREFERENCE
             IS ABSTRACTED FROM NOT DENIGHED 

THE  SOCIAL ORGINS 
AND DETERMINATION
   OF PREFERENCE
HARDLY 
CREATES A FORCED CHOICE 
FOR THE INDIVIDUAL
(HIM/HER SELF A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT )
 ASSUMING 
  ALL PREFERENCES 
ARE SOCIALLY PRODUCED 
CHANGES NOTHING
AND IF YOU WANT A BIGGER MODEL 
THIS CAN BE NICELY BUILT INTO  THE CHOICE MODEL ....

           IF 
 IT'S HOW OUR SOCIETY
  PRODUCES PREFERENCE
YOU WISH TO DISSSSSSSSSS
THE BLATANT FACT OF 
  PROFITEERS MOTIVES BEHIND MESSAGES OF A MASS KIND...
WELL 
THEY CAN'T FORCE A CHOICE 
BETWEEN DO AND DON'T
ONLY
 DO THIS NOT THAT 

 
CHOICES AND DIFFERENTIAL OUTCOMES
 WITH  ALTERNATIVE PERSUASION SYSTEMS

ISN'T THAT
 TAUGHT IN SOCIOLOGY CLASS 
         IS 
THAT WHATS  BRISTLIN
 YER SPINAL HAIRS...
SHOULD BE AN ECON CON TOPIC?


THEN HAVE A JOINT PROGRAM 

SURE THE BIG CORPS
 BE GUIDIN US BY BEGUILIN UZ
             TO THEIR SALES TRAPS 

WHO NEEDS A CLASS ON THAT POINT 
 --------------


Flip to international economics 
and search in vain 
for discussion of transnational corporations 
and corporate power.

 Companies large and small
 are merely "firms,"
 WalMart and the local grocer
 equal competitors for consumer dollars.


--NON SENSE IN FACT THE PATTY BURGER 
 COMPETITIVE PARADIGM 
NATURALLY LEADS TO ANTI MONOPOLY STUFF -------


 "Workers are merely
 a subset of consumers"

---- AS CONSUMERS 
THATS WHAT THEY ARE

POOR TO LOWER MIDDLIN CONSUMERS

NO BETTER OR WORSE 
THEN  MOST COLLEGE STUDENTS 
AND RETIRED  OLD FARTS ------------


 "endowed" with "human capital"
 which they may 
or may not choose 
to rent out for wages
 in the marketplace"

------ SO?

HUMAN CAPITAL
 IS JUST 
A SUNDAY BEST NAME 
FOR HUMAN COMMODITY 


THISWHOLE SELF INVESTMENT 
IN MARKETABLE LABOR SKILLS
                  APPROACH
 SEEMS TO ME 
AS CLOSE 
TO THE WATER TROUGH 
         AS A HORSE 
 NEEDS TO GET LED

THE LAST BIT 
 OUGHTA HAPPEN SPONTANEOUSLY
IF YA GOT THE RIGHT THRISTY HORSE --------

"This language of free choice 
and individualism 
tends to support 
conservative economic policy"

------ NON SENSE 

LAISSEZ FAIRE 
CORPORATE POLICY
AND FREEDOM OF THE INDIVIDUAL
AIN'T CONFLATED
IN ONE HEAD 
EXCEPT BY CHOICE
 OF THAT HEAD 

THE PROBLEM FOR
 PATTY BURGERS
IS 
THESE SACRED
 VALUES 
ARE MIS-APPROPRIATED 
BY BIG CORPORATIONS

USED 
AS GRAND MA COSTUMES 
TO HIDE 
THEIR WOLFISH INTENTIONS
 
"FREE TO BE ?
YES MY DARLING

YOU'RE  FREE TO BE MY LUNCH " 

BUT WHO 
DON'T KNOW THAT 
BY AGE 18 ? ---------
 
"and is rarely challenged, 
even by those who identify as liberals"

----- OH REALLY ? 
MAYBE THE CHALLENGES ARE THERE
BUT JUST FUCKIN FAIL -----------

----------AFTER CONFUSING
 OPPRESSION WITH EXPLOITATION

 TO NOW  CLAIM 
YOU REP A QUALITATIVELY  DIFFERENT 
                       PARDIGM 
 TO SAY 
 JACK ASS PARTY 
ANTI-DLC LIBERALS 
IS PLAIN FRAUD

 
YOUR  ACT 
IS THE RAD FLANK OF  LIBERAL BS 

WHAT REALLY DON'T EXIST
  IN YOUR MIND
THE SYMBIOTIC 
LINKS BETWIXT YOU ALL  
ARE IN REALITY 
OUT THERE DANCIN WITH YA 
     AND INSIDE DICKIN WITH YA  
             
ALL YOU GOT IS SANTIMONY ON EM 

I KNOW 

YOU'RE SURE YER "PRODUCTS "BETTER 

AND 
YER READY
TO COMPETE WITH EM AREN'T YA ?


YOUR "BETTER RICHER SMOOTHER"PRODUCT...
IF FOLKS COULD ONLY TRY IT ...

IT'D GET  BOUGHT
AND RE-BOUGHT 
 
IF ONLY YOU HAD 
THE SAME ACCESS 
TO PEOPLE'S HEADS 
AS CORPORATE AMERIKA HAS 

BUT REALLY FUCK FACE 
YOU IZ 
THE SAME OLD SAME OLD
IIN FACT BY 25
WHO HASN'T SEEN ENOUGH
HAND RINGING HUMANISM 
TO LAST 10 LIFE TIMES 

YER RETARDED 
PATTY BURG
  RAD BS

IS JUST
THEIR 50 YEAR OLD
               G'LIBERAL BS 
 REPACKAGED FOR PERPETUAL  20 YEAR OLDS  ---------

------ ANOTHER END SPOT ----------------
------------------------------------

 "Not that mainstream economics 
is completely uncritical of markets"

------ NOW ENTER MY BOYZ -------------- 

Joseph Stiglitz
 
  
demonstrated
 that markets 
will be "inefficient" 
if parties lack complete information 
(if a firm knows its books are cooked, 
but the bank does not, for example). 

Paul Krugman was acclaimed 
in part for his work 
on inefficiencies 
caused by speculators 
in international currency markets

------- ya so why we need more 
white knights then  them  ? 

WE GET 
no answer 

instead a leap to 
              
   "our" side 


we be 
" not just 
uber liberals" side 

we who .... ----------------

   " .. reject 
the core assumptions 
of individualism and free choice"

-----which- by the way 
all by itself ---------
 
 " places us  
out of the mainstream." 

---ya see 
a paradigm based
 on  individualism
  and  free choice 
cripples ya 
as a really rad critic
 of capitalism 
but dump it
 and ooops
you ain't no longer
a main frame  econ con any more -----------


" a good number 
of economists fall 
into this category
 though many would be
 uncomfortable 
with the tag "radical."


----- whoopee
 theres a "good number" 
          of de facto econ con rads
but why u still got
  the long face gal  ?  ----------



"  calling  themselves 
"heterodox,"
 "progressive,"
 "feminist," 
"institutionalist," 
"post-Keynesian," 
"Marxist,"
 "social economists," 
or 
"ecological economists." 

-------all code names for rad ? -----------


"Like the American left 
                 in general 
these groups differ 
in focus and politics"

 ----- thank god for our ivy walled
                      ideo- diversity  ------


"What most share "

------ here comes the final reduction to  the patty cake --------


" an insistence 
that economic analysis
 address structural power..."

-------  "structural power" ?
 shit why do i feel 
like i just swallowed 
a glass peacock? --------
 -----
 "and the inequities 
of race, class, and gender"

----- one department most be :
          marx and 
his  theory 
         of "unequal" classes --------

" Most are also concerned 
with the destructive impact
 of markets on environmental 
and social stability."

 
--------------- untouchable hook up here 
our goal

  green calm  
    plus class calm 

yup i sure hate the caps 
destabilizin class things 
             don't u ?

i'd rather we calmed the class biz

stabilized it like FDR 

maybe if we 
  made things more equal....

sheep layin with lions 
and maybe
 even  a few goats too 
even smelly goats ---------- ----------



" And most see themselves 
as part of a centuries-old
 tradition of political economy ..."

----ah an
honorable
           traditional craft 
like black smithing 
                 
more patty rad  
       mutual
back scratching

typical of a pack of  also rans .... -------------


" a tradition
  that does not divorce
 economic questions
 from social and political ones" 
-------------- ages old
like alchemy 

that marvelous traditional science
that  doesn't divorce 
chemistry from 
          hocus pocus  --------------



 "As the political center of gravity
 in the United States shifts rightward,
 prominent liberals
 have grown increasingly critical
 of right-wing economic policies."

---okay..._-------- 

"After stints 
in the Clinton administration
 and at the World Bank, 
Stiglitz wrote two books 
attacking the political power
 of the finance industry." 

----- now thats thunder
 for ya write
a couple a books ...-------

"Krugman became the bête noir 
of the Republican right 
once he began writing op-ed columns 
for the New York Times"

-------- the nyt mast head's
    latest 
   snapish   mascot ?
big deal -------------


" For those shunted 
out of the mainstream
such dissidence 
is a hopeful development"

----- shunted out 
really?


hopeful development 

what ?

where's their mea culpa ?
 "i  joe 
and i paul
we both do confess
we have sinned 
and sinned gravely 
against 
the interests of amerikan workerdom "

that would be hopeful

but ain't happened yet 

or
if not a confession of past sins

then 
at least
 a chalmers johnson like brake out

senile or otherwise
 
a rogue 
off the reservation rampage --------------
-------------------------


" But we must also remember 
that mainstream economics 
has absorbed 
and even celebrated 
dissidents in the past 
without abandoning 
its allegiance 
to the neo-classical framework. 


------ a melancholy last note
 eh? 
    not really encouraged 
by the joe-paul dick pulls

why ?

can't be
that in yer secret heart
you realize
in 
the bout  between 
 mistah wage klass 
 and doctor goebels
       you ain't landed 
a single punch 
on goebels chin ?  ------------

FYI

this piece was written by 
  ONE 
        "Ellie Funk"

Ellie is a charter  member 
of the Doo Dah Day  collective, 
                 and  is also 
            senior economic analyst
                     at the Puberty  Institute 

       this term 
she is on official leave
and hiding out 
              near 
 The Newport  naval College
                    of 
                        Rock n Roll

 

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