'Socialist' Adam Smith on owners v. labor

Rosenberg's latest post is worth reading in full; I'll just copy two quotes he gives from the father of economics Adam Smith regarding the "masters" and "workmen" of the world, because his observations still hold true. The first one relates to collective bargaining, without which individual workers are always at a disadvantage to their employers:

A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, a merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year without employment. In the long run the workman may be as necessary to his master as his master is to him; but the necessity is not so immediate.

And here's a second one... so apropos the present-day USA!

Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are always the masters. When the regulation, therefore, is in favour of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters.

Remarks Rosenberg:

This is why economics used to be called "political economy", because the great classical economists never lost sight of the fact that economics was a thoroughly political activity, not something outside of the life of a political community.

Politics -- not economics -- is why our "masters" of business are not only beating our "workmen" in the state-by-state battle against right-to-work laws and a higher minimum wage; it's also why they are able to win expensive federal and local tax breaks, not to mention direct financial incentives -- and meanwhile, nobody bothers to do a cost-benefit analysis, even ex post facto.

But we sure can see the effects on workers' wages over the past 30 years, despite their ever-rising productivity, there's no denying it.

Socialist firebrand Adam Smith points the way in struggle for a living wage

By Paul Rosenberg

December 15, 2012 | Aljazeera

URL: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121214131829224157.html

What a 'real' zombie apocalypse would require

So some dude at Harvard has written "The Zombie Autopsies," which all but legitimizes zombie-prepper paranoia.  

The key take-away is that any zombie infection must affect the human frontal lobe and the cerebellum in a very specific way. Since most people don't use their brains at all, it's not much of a stretch to think that some zombie virus would use it for them.

Then all our stockpiled canned goods, guns and ammo in our bunkers will have been supremely justified!  

Meanwhile, here are what truly Bad Brains look like: 

Zombie Apocalypse Prevention Comes Down To Understanding Zombie Bra-a-ains

By David Moye

December 14, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/U0K6nj

CRS report: Higher taxes on rich do not impede growth

Not that most Republicans will care, but once again, facts and statistics do not support their article of faith that higher taxes on the One Percent damage the economy:

"Analysis of such data [since WW II] conducted for this report suggests the reduction in the top tax rates has had little association with saving, investment, or productivity growth," the study says. "It is reasonable to assume that a tax rate change limited to a small group of taxpayers at the top of the income distribution would have a negligible effect on economic growth."

The American economy has done much better than it has today with much higher tax rates on the rich -- a top marginal rate as high as 91 percent. In fact what our current tax policies do is create greater disparities of wealth, which hurts the U.S. economy in the long run, since, at the end of the day, our economy runs on consumption, therefore the American economy requires a broad, stable middle class that is not mired in debt and can afford to buy the goods and services that our economy can produce.

High-End Tax Hikes Would Have 'Negligible' Impact On Growth, Revised CRS Report Says

By Michael McAuliff

December 13, 2012 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/XiD8aW

In case you missed it: More gun rampages

You may be distracted what with the nearly record-breaking school gun rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut on Friday, but time moves on, and new rampages happen every day in America....

Details, but no answers, in Oregon mall shooting

By Mariano Castillo and Holly Yan

December 13, 2012 | CNN

URL: http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/12/justice/oregon-mall-shooting/index.html

Alabama Hospital Shooting: St. Vincent's Gunman Wounds 3 Before Being Killed By Police

December 15, 2012 | AP

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/15/alabama-hospital-shooting-wounded-gunman-killed_n_2307505.html

'Gun rights' winning media battle

Post this one in the "Whither the Liberal Media?" file. Yet conservatives will continue to whine pathetically that their beliefs are under constant assault by a biased mainstream media.

In fact we are all under assault -- by easily accessible, legal firearms.  RIP, gun victims at Sandy Hook Elementary.

In Public ‘Conversation’ on Guns, a Rhetorical Shift

By Nate Silver

December 14, 2012 | New York Times

URL: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/in-public-conversation-on-guns-a-rhetorical-shift/