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actually it's more complicated than that. there's no "natural" hydraulics that determines wage levels. fact is that in the industrial sectors of the us economy after ww2--so during the height of fordism---wage levels were quite high and sustainably so in part because of strong unions, in part because of collective bargaining, in part because there was a de facto social compromise such that relatively high wages extension of consumer credit and the suburban model all worked together. and underpinning of all this was the assumption--which wasnt even an assumption, more like a way of thinking/life---that the nation-state formed a "natural" boundary for captialist activity in manufacturing (this was never true in at the level of materials procurement...).
this came apart across the 1970s. the idea that there is some deterritorialized hydraulics that "naturally" set wage rates low is a result of neoliberalism implemented and is a duplication of the ideology at the level of thinking.
there are any number of responses that could play out to raising wage levels. everything would depend on the regulatory frame that was set up. the obama people seem WAY too centrist for this kind of social-democratic move, however. silly accusations of being a pinko notwithstanding.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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