Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 23:16:30 PST
Subject: Re: M-I: Racism, sexism, and class
From: farmelantj-AT-juno.com (James Farmelant)


: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 20:12:35 -0500 (EST)
: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us> wrote:

>
>
>I'm not a rational choice Marxist. Not all us analytical Marxists are. 
>In
>fact, not even all the famous ones are. Gerry Cohen isn't. Alan Wood
>isn't. Richard Miller wasn't, when he was a Marxist. I do think 
>rational
>choice theory can be a useful tool if one is aware of its very severe
>limitations.

Sorry for the confusion, I was aware that G.A. Cohen et al. are
analytical Marxists without being rational choice theorists but I
mistakenly thought  you were.

>Moreover, you don't have to reject neoclassical economics (a limited 
>and
>specific variant of RCT, or a theory sharing some main RCT 
>assumpytions,
>but by no means a commitment if one accepts RCT) to go in for the idea
>that racism and sexism might be rational for capitalism. John Roemer, 
>who
>is a RC Marxist, has proved a divide and conquor theorem using 
>strictly
>NCE tools, showing that on a certain assumption set rational 
>capitalists
>will segregate workers into groups and pay one of those groups less in
>order to apy them all less.

This was precisely what I was looking for.  Is it possible for you to
give a reference on
Roemer's theorem?

>However, the NCE have a point, which is reflected in the bourgeois
>ideology of equality, that racism, or at least discrimination against 
>some
>groups (women, miniorities, what have you) is irrational on other
>assumptions, viz., those shared by most standard versions of NCE.
>
>If we bear in mind what models are supposed to do, pick out salient
>features of a situation to suggest explanations or at least frame 
>problems
>for explanation, these results are not necessarily contradictory. As 
>James
>suggests, racism might be rational in some respect, say the long term, 
>but
>irrational in the short term--or vice versa; I'm not sure which he 
>means

I am not quite sure what I mean here either.  My thinking here is still
quite vague but your following comments look promising.

>Or it might be rational in depressing wage costs but irrational in 
>harming
>innovation. These hypotheses might be tested either by careful 
>modelling
>or empirical research or (best) both. As I;m not an economist, I am 
>not
>conmpetent to do this. Perhaps Barkley Rosser or someone who is a real
>economist can comment.

>--Justin
>
                                                  
                                                Jim


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