Harry Braverman was an intellectual firmly placed in the Marxist Left. I don't know much about him personally, but this book indicates that he earned a living as a typesetter. He was clearly proud of being part of the proletariet. This book is relevant not only for Marxism but also for non-Marxists.
Braverman...
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Harry Braverman was an intellectual firmly placed in the Marxist Left. I don't know much about him personally, but this book indicates that he earned a living as a typesetter. He was clearly proud of being part of the proletariet. This book is relevant not only for Marxism but also for non-Marxists.
Braverman explains well the nature of classical economics, coining the term "cash nexus." Classical economics can only assign values to things in the human world if they travel through the cash nexus. So something that may be bad for society in general, such as a high divorce rate, might be calculated by economists and business planners as a good thing. The benefits of marriage often are free to their beneficiaries, while divorce forces more of the worth of the individuals into the cash economy, thereby profitting capital markets and governments that fund themselves through taxes on cash transactions. Bottom line: what is good for GM and the US might not be good for me or you.
Braverman's split between social goods and economic goods is important for anyone wishing to live a happy life. Our modern capitalist world values exponential economic growth, regardless of the happiness or true well-being of the participants in the economic sphere. When we go to make personal, social and political decisions, we must regularly ask ourselves, does this act increase happiness or social peace. I may be unhappy in the higher paying job. Or my higher paying job may include so many costs that the overall worth of my life and social relationships may have dropped.
Clean water in the faucet means that I don't have to pay for bottled beverages. An adequately funded public health system means that I don't have to fear epidemics and that my society is not hobbled by high mortality rates.One can see that pro-business environmentalists promote things like the Prius, because you pay a lot of money for the privilege of using little gasoline, over things like living close enough to your work place to walk, which actually uses much less energy. The Prius drives through the cash nexus, while the walker ambles quietly around it.
When my wife and I had children, she stayed home to care for them. Did I think less of her for not working outside the home? I do not believe that I did. I recognized that her benefit to our social group was simply flowing outside of the cash nexus. The benefits were real and priceless. Lessening ones use of the cash nexus requires discipline, especially because our modern society emphisizes using it and lures one into passing through it.
Indeed the assumptions upon which our economy is based include exponential growth in the value passing through the cash nexus. News reporters fret when the annual rate of growth of the [cash] economy is less than two percent. It is an open question as to whether the liberal democracies of modern society can survive without exponential economic growth. The Great Depression was a serious and nearly fatal shock to the system. Hubbert's peak of oil may be even more fatal.
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