Author Archives: werner

Socialism in the U.S.?: „Some illuminating Reactions to Elizabeth Warren’s Worker Rights Plan“ – how commentars on the right view #codetermination

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„It’s socialism! It’s the death of the economy! It’s… a plan to give employees a few seats on corporate boards.“

With these words Nathan J. Robinson summarizes the comments on the right regarding Elizabeth Warren’s bill (https://www.vox.com/2018/8/15/17683022/elizabeth-warren-accountable-capitalism-corporations) requiring corporations to provide their employees 40% of seats on their board of directors. Right wingers view this very modest proposal for #codetermination as socialism, as a „plan to ’nationalize every major business in the United States,‘ which would be ‚the largest seizure of private property in human history.'“ (https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/08/some-illuminating-reactions-to-elizabeth-warrens-worker-rights-plan)

The discussion not only in the U.S. press, but also on twitter (#codetermination) is very interesting. I read a lot of arguments we have been discussing in Germany for a long time, and I think the discussion could learn from the German experience of codetermination (Mitbestimmung). There is a lot of literature. The following source summarizes parts of the … Mehr lesen...

Marx-Ratio. Wiederkehr der Ausbeutungsrate als Indikator (Forschungsskizze #1)

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Marx-Ratio. Wiederkehr der Ausbeutungsrate als Indikator1

Vieles ist zu seinem 200. Geburtstag über Karl Marx und seine Theorien geschrieben worden. Besonders beeindruckt hat mich ein recht schlichter Vorschlag von Neil Irvin (Irwin 2018), der in einem Artikel in der New York Times vorschlägt, die Ausbeutungsrate von Unternehmen zu untersuchen. Irwin spricht vom „Marx Ratio“.

„The Marx Ratio, as we’re calling it, captures the relationship between a company’s profits — the return to capital, on a per-employee basis — and how much its median employee is compensated, a rough proxy for the return to labor. Companies with high Marx Ratios offer particularly strong rewards to their shareholders relative to workers“ (Irwin 2018).

Der Marx-Quotient ist nicht mit der Marx’schen Ausbeutungsrate identisch ist (Ruccio 2018), allerdings sieht auch Ruccio den Quotienten als eine Art Proxy-Variable an. (Vor rund vierzig Jahren hat übrigens das Institut für Marxistische Studien und Forschungen (IMSF) einen … Mehr lesen...

„We Provoked Business Students to Unionize“ – a good example for critical teaching

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If you want to know, what good critical teaching is, you should read this article. Body and mind, feeling and thinking are being connected in the classroom (https://criticalmotteaching.wordpress.com).

Abstract. „Many industrial relations (IR) scholars experience some angst at their (mis)placement in business schools. While our Abstract Many industrial relations (IR) scholars experience some angst at their (mis)placement in business schools. While our expertise broadens the curriculum, the topics central to IR and union?management matters often are met with student resistance, particularly in North America. At our wits? end, we decided to employ a deception simulation. We devised an award winning exercise that broke business students? psychological contract with their professor and gave them an opportunity to organize collectively to redress this injustice. Students observed first-hand the triggers of union organizing as well as their responses to inequity. Anonymous student feedback showed an overwhelmingly positive reception to the exercise.

… Mehr lesen...