[p2p-research] Santa Fe Institute economist: one in four Americans is employed to guard the...

[Kevin Carson]

  Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader: Santa Fe Institute
economist: one in four Americans is employed to guard the wealth of the
rich via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow on 2/5/10
Here's a fascinating profile on radical Santa Fe Institute economist
Samuel Bowles, an empiricist who says his research doesn't support the
Chicago School efficient marketplace hypothesis. Instead, Bowles argues
that the wealth inequality created by strict market economics creates
inefficiencies because society has to devote so much effort to stopping
the poor from expropriating the rich. He calls this "guard labor" and
says that one in four Americans is employed to in the sector -- labor
that could otherwise be used to increase the nation's wealth and
progress.
The greater the inequalities in a society, the more guard labor it
requires, Bowles finds. This holds true among US states, with
relatively unequal states like New Mexico employing a greater share of
guard labor than relatively egalitarian states like Wisconsin.
The problem, Bowles argues, is that too much guard labor
sustains "illegitimate inequalities," creating a drag on the economy.
All of the people in guard labor jobs could be doing something more
productive with their time--perhaps starting their own businesses or
helping to reduce the US trade deficit with China.
Guard labor supports what one might call the beat-down economy.
Community Action's Porter sees it all the time.
"We have based almost everything we have done on the idea that we
always need a part of our workforce that is marginalized--that we can
call this group into action at any time, pay them nothing and they will
do anything that needs to be done," she says.
More discouraging, perhaps, is the statistical fact that a person born
into this workforce has little chance of rising beyond it.



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