Organic foods and their health benefits are a helpful ‘issue’ for us

As we assess “The Corporation”, we are going to have to get some practice in putting bad things in context. I like the organic food example for this reason: pesticides seem bad, worrisome, not healthy in some way we don’t always know with precision. And I was amazed at the analysis of the current data on cancer risk and fruit consumption, straight number analysis, done Professor Bruce Ames of UC Berkeley, one of world’s leading biochemists, that concludes you are no more likely to get cancer from eating an insecticide-sprayed apple than from eating an organic apple because the level of natural pesticides produced by the apple dwarfs those of man-made spraying. And if you eat fewer organic apples, because they are more expensive, you will in fact be worse off as fruit contain chemicals which guard against cancer.
One article I read suggested eating just one less apple a year, due to price, made it worth while to avoid (more costly) organics.

panicking? tip: try google

If you are thinking you wish you had taken more notes– don’t give up yet. Google a specific topic “marx on profit”, “aristotle on the economy”, “invisible hand” –you’ll find a ton of information! It’s a great way to review, too.

refuting Marx

In response to the fourth question you’ve posted: if you are asked to refute Marx, how to do it? I would give the strongest refutation you can. Don’t forget how supportive millions and millions of people were of communism– don’t act unaware of how difficult (if possible) it would be to convince Marx of any benefits of capitalism. The best refutation would be one that Marx himself would agree pointed out a problem. I should repeat that: the best refutation of another’s argument is one that points out a problem even your opponent would admit. One more hint: see the first page of our handout on Marx (the one with the Soviet poster on top.)

midterm questions

One student asks for Smith and Marx’s formula for profit, if you are feeling generous– post your answer. But, of course, Smith thinks profit will happen as long as you are trading what you have extra of for what I have extra of. It happens in the transaction, and it is not going to be something that can be put into a number. For Marx, profit happens— where? And why? (I’m not going to answer this because we went over it so many times. But you could post the answer for fellow students.)

Another question is what Marx would say about Smith’s description of the economy? He would, of course, compliment his own system, so, how is Marx’s description different from Smith’s? You can, of course, put this in your own words.

And one question asks about how much Entine, Friedman, Mackey, and Rodgers will be on the midterm. One of your essay questions might be on Mackey, of course. Nothing will be on Rodgers. And you may have a question on the main ideas of Entine and Friedman. Your handouts are the best review guides to these authors. But the review I emailed does represent our main focus on this midterm: Aristotle, Mandeville, Smith, and Marx on wealth and profit. The earlier authors come up again later.

Another neat bit of data on working class lives in the 19th cent.

How Working-men Live in Europe and America
Posted on Monday, January 19, 2004. “The refuse of the rich man’s kitchen is carefully stored by the cook, and sold to dealers in ‘second-hand’ food, who in turn retail it to the poor.” Originally from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, vol. 74, iss. 442, April 1887. By Lee Meriwether.

A New York seamstress
The conception which Americans generally entertain regarding Italians is erroneous. On our street corners Italians sell peanuts, and sleep; in front of our houses they grind hand-organs, and send their monkeys up the doorsteps begging for pennies. Americans who see this, and tourists who see the lazzaroni on the Corso in Naples or on the Piazza of Saint Peter’s in Rome, shrug their shoulders and speak of the “lazy Italians.” The investigator, however, who will travel among the people, who will look below the surface, will be forced to admit that Italians work as hard and earn as little for their labor as any people in the world. The Italian fruit-venders and organ-grinders whom we see on the streets enjoy those light and honorable occupations as the reward of years of self-denial and saving, either on their own part or on the part of their fathers. I saw a man past the middle age board the steerage in Genoa for New York. He related with pride how he had worked for years carrying stones, how he had saved a few hundred lire, and how he intended now to pass his remaining years in ease, sitting on a box dozing and selling pea-nuts and candy. What an American thinks wretched as a beginning, a large class of Italians regard as a happy goal, and toil and save with the hope of reaching it. When in this country their ideas expand; the instances are not few where the corner fruit-seller blooms into a respectable wholesale merchant.
There is no waste in Italian kitchens, not even in kitchens of the rich.

Any questions concerning review for the midterm?

You could post them as comments to this post.

reports on the “rationing” for different groups in the 20’s in Russia

Here is more information on the rationing system Lenin put in place, which is kind of hard to imagine.
Alexander Berkman, The Bolshevik Myth, New York: Boni and Liveright, 1925
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE MOSKKOMMUNE
The Commissar of our ossobniak, having to lay in provisions, invited me to accompany him to the Moskkommune. It is the great food supply center, a tremendous organization that feeds Moscow and its environs. Its trains have the right of way on all lines and carry food from parts as distant as Siberia and Turkestan. Not a pound of flour can be issued by any of the “stores” — the distributing points scattered throughout the city — without a written order signed and counter-signed by the various bureaus of the Commune. From this center each “distributor” receives the amount necessary to supply the demands of the given district, according to the norm allowed on the bread and other cards.

Here is Marx on profit in his own words. Not required reading, but helpful.

Here is the manuscript, full of the detail (and then some) that is necessary to understanding Marx on profit.

Here is a link to a current communist organization. Take a look.

Welcome to the course!

Dear class, I am sure it will be a pleasure to work with you this semester. You will be assigned a day on which you are to post your notes or commentary on the lecture. I’ve left up the previous class’s posts, and feel free to peruse them.

Anti Consumerist Organizations: Adbusters and No Logo

http://www.adbusters.org/home/
http://www.nologo.org/

Take a look.