Monthly Archives: May 2013
Thank you, Fortuna and your Delightful Wheel
Posted on May 29, 2013 Leave a Comment
Sometimes life hands you precisely the (in-need-of-correction) quote you desire in order to argue that your research isn’t stupid: Morton J. Horowitz “This chapter focuses on Holmes’s theoretical writings through ‘The Path of the Law,’ which represents his last effort at self-conscious, abstract discussion of legal theory. Though the influence of Holmes’s judicial career–especially his […]
a paragraph I should add towards the end of my paper next weekend
Posted on May 29, 2013 Leave a Comment
Before I conclude, I should make a point to indicate some directions for future research. The fight against featherbedding cannot be understood except against the background of the large literature on Taylorism and the history of management. The arguments I have made here should be put in dialogue with the work of scholars like Daniel […]
The C Word
Posted on May 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
Is it really necessary to say something about the individual here? Some see in its invention and in the culture, if not in the cult built around the individual, Europe’s incontrovertible merit of having shown the world the sole path to emancipation from tyranny, and the norm by which to measure all our collective or […]
The Featherbedding Files. Entry 19.
Posted on May 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
Do unions increase productivity? Feb 22nd 2007, 17:44 by The Economist | NEW YORK IF YOU’VE ever spent time in a union shop, in America at least, it’s hard to believe they do. It is not that union workers are lazy, a favorite canard of the right; at least in my experience, union workers […]
The Featherbedding Files, Entry 18. On “Malingering,” 1920
Posted on May 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
In Bulletin of the Department of Labor and Industry (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) Clifford B. Connelley, Commissioner. Containing: Proceedings of Annual Pennsylvania Safety Congress. Volume VII. Series of 1920. No. 4. The Problem of the Malingerer By Judson C. Fisher M.D. Specialist in Industrial Insurance, New York City No state or government has discussed workingmen’s […]
The Featherbedding Files, Entry 17
Posted on May 27, 2013 Leave a Comment
Notes on Ann Cvetkovich Depression: A Public Feeling Describing the desert monk who “begins to forget the object of his profession, which is nothing but meditation and contemplation of the divine purity which excels in all things, and which can only be gained by silence and continually remaining in the cell, and by meditation,” the […]
The Featherbedding Files, Entry 16
Posted on May 27, 2013 Leave a Comment
It was these practices that were reflected in a 1972 labor reference volume: ‘Those work rules which require the employment of more workers than needed for the job. In addition, when technological advances eliminate positions, unions often insist that the workers be retained and receive their regular pay tor doing nothing.’ A. Paradis, The Labor […]
Call for Submissions: Rolling Symposium on Intellectual History and the Labor Theory of Value
Posted on May 27, 2013 Leave a Comment
Spurred on by some fascinating responses to a little essay I wrote on Corey Robin’s generative piece on Nietzsche and Hayek, I think it would be productive and illuminating to host a rolling symposium specifically on the question of the labor theory of value in comparative intellectual-historical perspective. Anyone who wishes to contribute is welcome […]
Sumner Slichter on the Drive System
Posted on May 26, 2013 Leave a Comment
“Of the numerous causes which combine to create low industrial moral several of great importance may be passed over with little or no discussion. Fatigue, ill health, and nervous strain are well known to cause low morale… (but their analysis) must be left to the physiologist and the psychologist.” then Slichter runs through the usual […]
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