PHA-Exchange> Food for a capital thought (2)

[Claudio]

Thanks for these comments.See my reactions in upper case on a slightly edited version of your email.
Cordially,
Claudio
   From: Theodore MacDonald 

  I am very interested in the comment re HR as a form of "capital". 
  My own view is that this can be misleading. "Capital", I agree, does not just refer to "money",  but also to "commodities" in general, things which are physically tradeable. ALSO REMEMBER THAT  LABOUR IS A FORM OF CAPITAL!
  But HR have to be achieved before "commodity" acquisition. OR AT THE SAME TIME?
  Where it is not, it is true that you get plenty of poor people, but also plenty of rich people. THIS IS NOT REALLY A COROLARY OF YOUR PREVIOUS STATEMENT. THERE ARE ALSO OTHER REASONS FOR THE RICH-POOR SPLIT. 
  For example, I worked in a country in which each citizen had access to healthcare, education and other services of  high quality. Definitely, lower down the social scale was a vast army of migrant workers, but even these
  had enormous reserves of capital (money and access to commodities) by comparison with any of their fellow citizens in their native countries. They had very few HRs and could be deported summarily, arrested, or whatever simply on the say so of an employer or a disgruntled policeman. Generally, I found that, despite this, they were grateful to be there so that they could send money home, but you can be sure that hatred was a growing sentiment.

  My view, therefore, is roughly yours back-to-front. NOT REALLY. I REPEAT, THE STRUGGLE FOR HR CAN (AND MOST OF THE TIME HAS TO BE) SIMULTANEOUS
  Before we can solve any of the huge problems of inequity - poverty being a fundamental one - we must have HR firmly established internationally in law and statute. It is more basic than anything else. a) NOT NECESSARILY BEFORE, b) CERTAINLY NOT WAIT UNTIL ESTABLISHED IN INTL LAW!....THAT WOULD TAKE TO LONG AND PARALYZE OUR HR ACTIVISM AND MOBILIZATION FROM BELOW.

  SEE IF YOU AGREE.
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