From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!megatest!fortune!hpda!hplabs!hp-pcd!courtney
Newsgroups: net.politics
Title: Re: A just legal system - possible? - (nf)
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.1024
Posted: Tue May 10 00:16:22 1983
Received: Fri May 13 03:19:21 1983

#R:houti:-26200:hp-pcd:17400022:000:1840
hp-pcd!courtney    May  9 13:10:00 1983

Tom Craver says:

    "There is no such animal as economic coercion."


What do you call it:

    -when one would be willing to grow one's own food, or provide for one's
     own needs...  but to do so would require access to land... but to have
     access to land, one needs MONEY to pay the rent or BUY it and pay TAXES
     for it.  This FORCES (coerces) one to acquire money by getting a job.
     When jobs are limited (as they almost always are), the employers can
     coerce individuals to do labor which is worth more than their
     compensation ("surplus value").  Nobody CHOOSES to do work for
     compensation which it less than the value of their efforts, they are
     COERCED to do so.

    -when the land of a country is owned by a small minority, who choose to
     grow BANANAS and SUGAR and other crops for EXPORT to rich countries.
     As a result, there is no longer enough land available for the people of
     that country to grow enough food to FEED THEMSELVES.  They must then
     BUY their staple foods from OTHER COUNTRIES.  To do so, they must have
     CASH to buy their food, *COERCING* them to find a job... the only jobs
     available are the jobs offered by multi-national investors, who pay
     BELOW POVERTY WAGES, exploiting profit from the huge surplus value of
     the people's labor and land.

    -when there exists an unregulated MONOPOLY of essential goods (that is
     why the US regulates "public utilities").


Tom Craver says:

    "if they [the people of a country] are strong and demand their rights
     boldly, they will get a just system."

Is that why the people of EL SALVADOR and CHILE and IRAN and AFGHANISTAN
    and POLAND...
Is that why those STRONG and BOLD people who DEMANDED THEIR RIGHTS
    are now living in such JUST SOCIETIES?


                    Courtney Loomis