The Return of the Very Cruel Economic System

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Chapter 7: From Experimental to Hegemonic Neoliberalism In the previous chapter I examined the theoretical turns which I argued amounted to the exhaustion of postwar reformism and the rise of the intellectual hegemony of neoliberalism.  This chapter is principally concerned … Continue reading

Don’t Cry for me Argentina: GM edition

I do not know why I read the business section.  I check it at least three times a day in four or five different papers.  OK I do know why.  It is precisely the same as porn.  As per the Globe and Mail:

For his efforts, Mr. Akerson was paid $7.7-million in cash and stock last year. And he cannot earn more than $9-million this year because the U.S Treasury still owns a 32-per-cent stake in GM and so sets the parameters for his compensation. That leaves Mr. Akerson earning barely a quarter of what Ford’s Alan Mulally took home in 2011.

If ever there was advertisement for penis enlargement this is it.  Poor Mr. Akerson.  Because his industry was saved by public money he only earned enough to make me whole (mortgage, student debt, credit cards and family loans) in 7 days.  Meanwhile Mr. Mulally earns enough in 2 days to make me whole.  Poor Mr. Akerson, he is 5 days closer to the peasantry than Mr. Mulally.

Thank the heavens there are 365.2 days in year.  But what is the G&M hook? Why it is “The GM chief and his $90-million pay cut.”  Poor bastard, what a fucking mensch, a real on the cross with Jesus type, salt of the earth…blah blah blah epitaph fish paste nonsense.

To be sure back at his old job where he made 100, 000, 000 (100 million) he could have made my family whole in the first 5 hours of work of his first day of work of the year.  So back then he was 1.5 days further away from the peasantry than Mr. Mulally.

Now I appreciate everything is relative.  And the question is relative to what.  For the Globe it is relative to intra class not inter class comparisons.

Me I am starting to think we need to make interclass comparisons more relevant

Pilkington hits a home run

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You should go read it in full I am just going to skip to the money shot: It’s columns like this that demonstrate how technocratic (and anti-democratic) neoclassical economists actually are. They say they like freedom and all that – … Continue reading