The Legend of the Free Labour Market
December 21, 2014 4:26 AM   Subscribe

 
Great blog. *subscribe*
posted by axon at 5:15 AM on December 21, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, when people complain about regulation, it's always about the regulation of the bosses, never the workers. Regulating workers has been fine since the year dirt. Funny that.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:17 AM on December 21, 2014 [18 favorites]


Great post, subscribed as well. Read the latest post for Trumptonshire 2014, makes for a sad update on a childhood favourite.
posted by arcticseal at 8:25 AM on December 21, 2014


The Statute of Labourers in 1351 is usually regarded as the first labour legislation in English Law. It was enacted during the labour shortage after the Black Death and its purpose was to stop workers moving from their home villages to look for work to hold down the price of labour.

Today we use immigration restrictions to do exactly the same thing—and it's not a coincidence that immigration laws have become unprecedentedly strict, despite all the crowing about "free trade," which always applies only to capitalists and never to people (with the perhaps sole exception of the Schengen Zone).
posted by enn at 8:44 AM on December 21, 2014 [4 favorites]


The first volume of Marx's Capital is fascinating reading in this regard. His account of "primitive" accumulation is basically the tale of the working class being created by force and brutality, as discussed in the article in the OP.
posted by graymouser at 8:54 AM on December 21, 2014 [4 favorites]


fwiw, David Harvey is big on the role that primitive accumulation plays in capitalist accumulation, though he renames it "accumulation by dispossession" to avoid the implication that it was just something that happened in the past, rather than being a key component of the present-day economy.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:14 PM on December 21, 2014 [4 favorites]


with the perhaps sole exception of the Schengen Zone

There's free movement of labour across the whole EU (& EEA) except for (recent entrant) Croatia. We shouldn't forget that despite the popularity of xenophobes in the UK, there's still a thriving flow of labour in and out of the country, and 20% of the EEA's economy.
posted by ambrosen at 4:00 PM on December 21, 2014


The Legend of the Free Labour Market

Sounds like a pretty awesome video game, right? I bet the final battle with Mammon is brutal.
posted by pwnguin at 5:45 PM on December 21, 2014 [3 favorites]


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