History, immigration and wages (in the USA): Greenspan's comments, Chomsky's comments
RE. Alan Greenspan
Noam Chomsky on class warfare: The rich think worker insecurity is a good thing
When asked about the fate of those in a capitalist society who are living “a precarious existence,”
Chomsky said that “from the point of view of those conducting the class war — part of the business classes and the government — the best thing would be to have a population which is living a
precarious existence.”
“This is not a secret,” he added. “It’s very well-understood by those waging the war. The clearest statements of it was by a man who used be called ‘Saint Alan’ [Greenspan] before 2007, when the system he carefully constructed crashed totally. When he was
testifying in the late ’90s, about the
marvels of the terrific economy he was running, he explained that
it was based on what he called ‘the growing worker insecurity.'”
“From the point of view of economists,” Chomsky said, “that’s a very healthy thing, because
if workers are insecure, they’re not going to ask for benefits, they’re not going to strike, they’re not going to call for an increase in wages.”
video:
Note around 32s "Inflation Pressures" abated of which Wage Inflation is the main one.
"History" and the "United States" but the same mechanisms apply in the UK and (IMO) to a greater extent because of the higher skills, greater wage differentials and unrestricted access to the UK from (parts of) Europe.
