[p2p-research] "Pennsylvania pie fight," etc.

[Kevin Carson]

On 4/17/09, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> what it means is the following: thai businesses pay very low wages, but
> always hire an excess amount of labour, so that the work pressure, despite
> the long hours, is actually quite low to western standards. I would estimate
> the ratio of workers to a particular job as being a factor of 3. Bear in
> mind this is not scientific, but based on my observations in the
> construction industry, in the restaurant business, in banks and shopping
> malls, i.e. the things I can see, but I've never been in a factory for
> example, though I strongly suspect it would be similar.
>
> This system has some advantages: many more people have a job, but they don't
> have to work so hard at it, and have ample time for socialising in the work
> sphere. For the privileged, it means cheap labour, but also especially cheap
> services (nannies, and generally very cheap personal services such as
> haircuts, massage, etc...). A typical middle class family, even it if earns
> say a quarter of its western counterpart, would have a lifestyle quality
> that is a quantum leap better than anything available in the West, as long
> as they don't spent their money abroad.

Interesting.  It sounds a bit like the patronage system among the
clans chieftains of the Scottish Highlands, with the chieftain
maintaining an extended network of retainers from the poorer members
of the clan.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
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Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
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Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html