Pure Economics for Now People

Now for an exigence: explaining the function of the writing of economics; generally, an unfortunate occurrence rather than modest proposal. The fundamental view of the Marxist economist, shared by Marx himself, is that the worthwhile economic activity is labour, not the explanation of such to no dirigente function: the Marxist attitude is that Marx’s economic works represent a minimal economic theory, explaining exactly what must be in order for industrial production to continue at its best — profits always falling to minimally sustainable levels, factories failing to be shuttered, blown up, commandeered, or repurposed into plowshares for beating: and work a hardship and a hindrance, always. (No eternal returns or lamb’s blood needed.)

What might motivate the writing of a work of pure economics, closing the circuit of political signification such that circuits of regular signification close without remainder and we are left only with the physical world and the residues of conversations once had, paintings once seen, animalia and a cap of some kind: the thought that “waiting for the end of the world” is a bootless activity, preserving an ahistorical horror at variance with the preservation of certain features of the present moment and its successors which would be of value without coin. There is no future other than this, and no past other than the one remembered in solidarity with the present: a long time ago someone fervently wished for your death, and you can live within it without others, but even put-ups from Southern California die and everybody else has a better chance: so, on to an a-grammaticism of the ’70s conspiracy book at any price.

On the old adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” and software

Presto: those who use the expression “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” to mean, straight off, that you can’t get something for nothing are missing something. The expression is American 19c, and it refers to the standing institution of the “free lunch counter”: a place where workingmen of a particular stripe could receive a rather sumptuous repast — or more often a sandwich — for the “price” of a drink.

The sense in which the free-lunch counter was not free is not that of the inexpensive alcohol served to accompany the meal: it refers, rather, to the political patronage system one had to enter to engage in such a pastime: that of the Democratic “machine”. The existence of such a peculiar institution was offensive to many for divers reasons, but although the standing principle incarnated in the adage’s modern variant is sounder not learning the lessons of the American past is a treat reserved for the happy few.

What is not a treat reserved for the happy few is inexpensive and well-designed software, and if the people think (as I once did) that Microsoft products are overpriced this is partially because they do not remember other “sectors” of commercial computing such as CAD programs that cost $10,000 a copy, and the competing products which would teach us the true virtues of, e.g., Microsoft Word — as opposed to its reliability and “ease of use” — are not around, perhaps on account of the Department of Justice.

“Open-source” software teaches valuable lessons about computing, such as its historical structure (earlier software cleaner and simpler and more likely to be available today) and the reliance of the “cooperative commonwealth” on the good will of programmers and other IT professionals, including those for rather powerful and “cutting-edge” companies. Sun is no “greenhorn”, and there are features in OpenOffice which they may not ultimately “know what they do”, at least yet.

If it is really worth doing quickly, precisely, and worldwide — such that the digital computer is an essential tool for accomplishing your task — open-source products incorporated in the free POSIX systems available for fifteen years are a good deal: however, if what is being done is more or less a “reflection” of the ends of a particular “man”, Microsoft products are as I said six years ago very good indeed: if one must “smash the mold” at any price, I guess the very best technology and the very least access “under the hood” would be all right.

My Day in Londinium

Nec me animi fallit Graiorum obscura reperta
difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse,
multa novis verbis praesertim cum sit agendum
propter egestatem linguae et rerum novitatem;
sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas
suavis amicitiae quemvis efferre laborem
suadet et inducit noctes vigilare serenas
quaerentem dictis quibus et quo carmine demum
clara tuae possim praepandere lumina menti,
res quibus occultas penitus convisere possis.

I know how hard it is in Latian verse
To tell the dark discoveries of the Greeks,
Chiefly because our pauper-speech must find
Strange terms to fit the strangeness of the thing;
Yet worth of thine and the expected joy
Of thy sweet friendship do persuade me on
To bear all toil and wake the clear nights through,
Seeking with what of words and what of song
I may at last most gloriously uncloud
For thee the light beyond, wherewith to view
The core of being at the centre hid.

Lucretius, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things)

Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Wallace Stevens, “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”

A word about the Roman Empire, and the correct interpretation of Latin sayings. The Roman Empire was completely given over to latinium, that is the third-person genitive plural of latito, “to be concealed”. Latin reveals the truth of signification: like the Etruscan alphabet, written words are primarily for decorative purposes and spoken ones “perlocutionary” all (at least in intention). The true life is amidst the physical structure of the world, and Latin literature exists solely for use when you have somehow forgotten this [Latin philosophy], or failed to learn it adequately [Latin literature]. It is the least pleasing of all languages, and never really spoken: as Gramsci knew, Popular Latin is a very different thing (not actually that vulgar), and reasonable people know enough to say something else.

American Economy and American Society (For Gary Locke)

People sometimes say, even apropos of nothing, that the United States is a “capitalist” country. There is a sense in which this is a harmless and accurate characterization: it has, and always has had, a guarantee of the individual right to own private property, protection and regulation of free enterprise, and a money system carefully controlled by the federal government. There is also a sense in which you can go to jail for not realizing these can be the only legal constituents of “capitalism” in the United States, and too much realism leads to mental rather than physical strife.

Sit-Down, Margaret

Flint GM sit-down strike, 1936-7

On this, the seventh day of the week, let me share an observation about labor law with you. It is a piece of “common knowledge” that the sit-down strike, where laborers occupy the factory until their demands are met, was a popular tactic in the ’30s but became illegal with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1948. However, my considered opinion is this: actually, sit-down strikes were illegal under the Wagner Act as well — one of the basic principles of property law is akin to the Third Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, in that you just can’t be forced to house people on your property if you don’t want them there. There is one way, however, to get around this, and that is if the crimes that have been committed against the workers are so great that they legally own the factory, as it would be required to be deeded to them in damages were the matters ever to come to trial: and really, this is the story behind the famous unionization of General Motors thanks to the sit-down strike at the Fisher Auto Body plants in Flint, Michigan from December 1936 to February 1937. They just couldn’t be removed, and don’t think Midwestern “authorities” are not highly motivated with respect to such issues: however, it would have been impolitic to actually entirely seize control of the means of production.

The Philosophy of Laboring (Punks and Platonism)

Six years ago, I wrote a “squib” called “The Philosopher of Labor: Or, Why We Can’t Quite Do Without Proudhon”. Though the title is a reference to a very sly joke by Marcuse about “dialectics”, a “private” joke of Marx’s, and the politics of capitalization in the United States the sentiment was genuine enough: Proudhon’s method and ideas are closer to the actual mindset of the socialist worker than Marx, and for good enough reason. However, since I’m not trying to make political points at the moment, let me generalize the observation slightly.

Although a rather sick but understandable joke dominated the left-wing understanding of Platonism in the late 20th century the culture of a functional workplace is Platonistic: allow me to explain via a consideration of the punk “subculture”. Punks are dressed widely at variance with the “norms” of bourgeois society, although thirty years on there is a lot of conservative continuity in their style; however, the “message” is not quite what you might think it is. Punks can always work, that’s why they get to look that way; if they couldn’t, they wouldn’t.

An additional consideration derived from punk should help us understand better. Punk music is a Platonistic form of rock and roll, in that it is very, very good musically but out of step with the times and enunciates ideals that aren’t quite “practically effective”: although drugs are poison, probably every “straight-edger” eventually had a problem themselves, and even though Chuck Berry is an immortal I’m not sure people needed to hear him again in the musically diverse late-’70s.  

However, this kind of inexactitude and correctness is just what makes actual workplaces performing essential services in a profitable but clean way work: you say the thing you really believe but can’t quite make true, and then labor under that “illusion”. This is one of the things that makes working life “seem” undesirable compared to a life of idleness, and there may be materialistic or “immoralistic” reasons for thinking productive activity a fool’s errand, but it’s just the way it has to be: if you’re “steady on your feet” and want to continue living, you have to find some ideal you can agree on with a class enemy (whatever side you’re on) and get going.

Squeegee Solution: Actually Being a Transient Begging for Money on the Internet

By the way, people, all this rockin’ doesn’t come for free. For the last five years, my monthly disability payment of $745 (and help from my parents designed to work around the rather patent fact that this is less SSDI than I’m owed and totally inadequate for living in the Portland area) has brought you amazement and edification, but although I have been graciously allowed to spend the remainder of the extant funds on living in my genuine flophouse I could use a little help, and you can deliver it anonymously using PayPal. My PayPal account is associated with jeffrubard@yahoo.com, the mail address I use when I’m not a piece of the American state apparatus; in truth I’m not a greedy man, but every little bit would help. Otherwise, I could be given other funds I’m owed through the miraculous functioning of the American legal system or being allowed to have a real job, but hey, Let’s Get Real.

UPDATE: Don’t even bother trying PayPal.

Why Is This Man Smiling?

“Chrysler believes there is no reason for withholding complete riding comfort from those who desire the utmost in motoring. Naturally, the basic changes that so definitely influence complete riding comfort are not made at low cost. They cannot be included in all cars in all price groups. But, for you who prefer motor cars that are wholly apart from the commonplace, Chrysler offers for 1934, the utterly distinctive, Floating Ride Airflow Chrysler.”

“There will be nothing to disturb the smoothness of its tear-drop silhouette as it cuts through the air”

Raymond Loewy, “The Evolution of the Motor Car”, Advertising Arts, March 1934, p.39 (quoted in Meikle, Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America, 1925-1939)

Joseph P. Kamp, Join the CIO and Help Build a Soviet America: A Factual Narrative, Consitutional Education League: New Haven, CT, 1937