Assistant Professor of Sociology @MaxwellSU. Automation & the Future of Work @VersoBooks.
Oct 26 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
This is a good question. You're referring here to two different version of the output-capital ratio, both of which are relevant. In either case, the numerator is the same: it's the output or income of society (which is the same thing in accounting terms): it's GDP.
But the denominator differs. If we care about productive capital, then the denominator is fixed capital assets, which refers to the structures, machines, equipment, and software that companies use to generate output. This corresponds to the Volume 1 Marx analysis.
Apr 13, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
I'm writing up a critique of JW Mason's ridiculous straw-manning of Bob Brenner's arguments right now. What strikes me, in Mason's reply, is its deeply technocrat desire, which is distinctly Keynesian.
"Winning some specific legislation does not mean that you control the state," Mason notes, "There’s a real danger in imagining ourselves 'in the room where it happens' when in reality we are very far from it."
Jan 11, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
When will economists stop presenting their theoretical assumptions about production functions as if they were empirical results? Acemoglu has never responded to my or other criticisms of his argument. nytimes.com/2022/01/11/tec…epi.org/publication/th…
Dec 29, 2021 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
.@irinibus was asking for writing advice, and I gave my two tips, which I gladly share with anyone who is interested. 5 years ago, I had to completely restructure my writing process because writing was like torture for me. Everyone's different, but this is what worked for me.
Writing every day just means devoting your best hour each day to writing, as consistently as possible. Obviously, not everyone can do that (kids, jobs, etc). But try to prioritize writing when you can.
Dec 9, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Part two of my article on automation analyzes the dynamics of the global labor market. I examine UBI as a proposed solution to worldwide labor insecurity and then consider alternative approaches to achieving a post-scarcity future. newleftreview.org/issues/II120/a…
A survey of worldwide vistas of insecure work shows that the main danger in the present moment is not imminently arriving mass unemployment but continuously rising under-employment. This reality has already been accepted by states and the wealthy elites they represent.
Oct 19, 2019 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
This thread is interesting, but it repeats some tired, Panglossian ideas about the causes of long-term deindustrialization. Deindustrialization isn't about steadily rising productivity growth rates, but rather declining rates of industrial output growth.
Here's an example of the pattern in France (used because the US numbers are skewed by bad reporting on productivity, as reported by Susan Houseman et. al.). Productivity growth rates are falling, but output growth rates are falling much more severely, leading to job loss.
Apr 20, 2019 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
The last letter from my great-grandparents to my grandfather, before they were sent to die in the concentration camps, on April 20th, 1944, exactly 75 years ago today:
Bela, his father, my great-grandfather, begins: My dearest son, with the minimum necessities we are all packed, as are all the Jews of the town, to be shipped, in accordance with the order of the Hungarian government, to an unknown destination for an unknown purpose.
