Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
At the beginning stages of his run for President, Donald Trump oddly fixated on China. He pronounced the word ‘China’ itself with the frenzy of a racist, and he focused on the nation in the context of international trade. Trump accused China of currency manipulation and unfair trade practices. In one heated claim, he accused China of ‘raping‘ the U.S. via its trade policy.
How did this situation arise? What’s the relationship between the U.S. and China? Where is that relationship headed?
Corporate America loves its myths. Especially ones allowing it to pat itself on the back, pretend its operations aren’t political, and solicit taxpayer funding for training its remaining workers. There’s little it loves more than pretending it’s providing a service and getting neither attention nor respect in return.
You know, like the skills gap myth. What’s the idea behind the ‘skills gap’? There’s a mismatch between the skills potential workers have and the skills employers want. In other words, a…skills gap. It’s not, they say, that they’re not hiring. It’s that they’re not finding what they need. What’s the evidence that there’s a skills gap? Employers say there’s one. Yes, survey data is the primary piece of evidence, even though employers might have incentive to…well…pat themselves on the back, pretend their operations aren’t political, and solicit taxpayer funding for training their workers.
In short, they’re working the refs.
In fact, it’s not all based on survey data. Some of it researchers base on the number of unfilled jobs. The problem? If there really were a skills gap – at least a skills gap motivating employers to do something about it – they’d lower their standards, or they’d offer better jobs, more pay, or training. Do they do these things? Well, no. While there might be small gaps in specific, narrow fields, there’s none whatsoever in the broader employment market. Nor has there been for a long, long time. If there were, you’d see employers offering more money or training.
As it happens, I recently read a poll providing some additional insight into the myth. It shows much of what we’d expect. But it also shows yet another reason employees are reluctant to take jobs: they don’t want to move, because they’re afraid of getting laid off. Why do you suppose that might be?
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had a dust-up in January. After that, a number of Sanders supporters directed the snake emoji at Warren on social media. You know the one. It’s the one in the photo above. What’s going on here? Is Warren a snake?
No, not exactly. Or so I’ll argue. Sanders supporters got it wrong with the snake emoji. But I don’t think they know why they got it wrong. I’ll say a bit about why and what I think they miss.
I tried to buy The ABCs of Socialism one time. I messed up and bought The ABCs of Capitalism instead. Doing the best I could with the situation, I read the pamphlets and wrote an overview. As it turned out, they’re a – decent, not great – socialist overview of capitalism.
This time I bought the real thing: The ABCs of Socialism, from Bhaskar Sunkara‘s Jacobin crew. Like much of what’s going on in the Jacobin world, it’s influential among many people in the social democratic-to-socialist left. And I think it has much to offer people in that camp.
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