tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post5308113533643108488..comments2024-03-28T06:07:03.667-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: THINGS COME TOGETHER [WITH APOLOGIES TO W. B. YEATS]Robert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-58900713595443977112015-03-01T08:25:49.149-05:002015-03-01T08:25:49.149-05:00You wrote: "...except of course for the fac...You wrote: "...except of course for the fact that these are, after all, Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy, so clearly disapproving of them is out of the question."<br /><br />And when I read that, I laughed out loud. <br /><br />And my pleasure did not stop there.formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-66602215647877418812015-02-28T14:34:12.793-05:002015-02-28T14:34:12.793-05:00"Under capitalism, as far as a share holder i..."Under capitalism, as far as a share holder is concerned, there is no difference, at a certain level of abstraction, in a corporation's expenditure on equipment or training for the workforce. Both are capital investments, with expected payoffs and risks"<br /><br />I can see the point and it's a clever one (which I would have liked to think of myself): Namely, because, from the capitalists' point of view, there is little difference between investing on providing skills to their workers and acquiring more advanced equipment, they (in consequence their economists) consider human capital a valid category.<br /><br />However, even in this case, there are differences between human capital and capital, after all, they don't buy the worker (she does not enter in the capitalists' balance sheet, as a machine would), but only her labour power.<br /><br />Besides, to judge whether human capital is a form of capital, shouldn't one adopt the worker's point of view? If so, the partial similarity breaks down completely: can the worker transfer her human capital, as she can her car?Magpiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07528637318288802178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-88450858313567646632015-02-26T02:48:51.004-05:002015-02-26T02:48:51.004-05:00Gone are the 'good old' days of reading bo...Gone are the 'good old' days of reading books like Grapes of Wrath or Heart of Darkness. They've been replaced by books like Lord of the Flies now.classtrugglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17537776267404584351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-51013661892152269692015-02-25T20:25:35.095-05:002015-02-25T20:25:35.095-05:00Brilliantly sardonic. I particularly love the phra...Brilliantly sardonic. I particularly love the phrase "incapable of understanding Marx's argument." This says it all - a semester could be spent explicating "incapable."Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01427077490696059928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-63261344629339738192015-02-25T13:04:30.487-05:002015-02-25T13:04:30.487-05:00I thought Professor Wolff's discussion of the ...I thought Professor Wolff's discussion of the literary nature of Marx's <i>Capital</i> very apposite for that discussion.<br /><br />Under capitalism, as far as a share holder is concerned, there is no difference, at a certain level of abstraction, in a corporation's expenditure on equipment or training for the workforce. Both are capital investments, with expected payoffs and risks (of obsolescence resulting from inventions during the life of the investment, of breakdown of equipment, of worker's changing their employment). So the phrase "human capital" captures a real illusion thrown up by capitalism.<br /><br />But the phrase obscures the fact that workers laborer under the direction of others who are always trying to extract more value out of the worker.Robert Vienneauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00872510108133281526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-6466169516856921422015-02-25T10:10:26.743-05:002015-02-25T10:10:26.743-05:00I thought you might be interested that Branko Mila...I thought you might be interested that Branko Milanovich has written quite clearly about why the phrase "human capital" is to be avoided in any honest discourse (I am linking to his blog because there is added comments and a follow-up there):<br /><br />http://glineq.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-misleading-terminology-of-human.html<br /><br />Not surprisingly there was a lot of chattering by economists who willfully "do not get it™" so there was this nice response:<br /><br />http://glineq.blogspot.com/2015/02/on-human-capital-one-more-time.htmlJim Westrichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11523640492416820740noreply@blogger.com