On Human Behavior, Human Fulfillment, and the Nature of the Workplace

Many notable heterodox economists have viewed workplace democracy as essential for the realization of the Enlightenment ideals of liberty, equality, and community. Yet the economics profession has never given their ideal more than a passing and dismissive glance. The reasons for this have been well-covered in the literature. But one reason that has been all but ignored is that the theory of human behavior that is credited to Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and that has dominated economic thinking ever since is not supportive of workplace democracy. However, Smith developed a far richer theory of human behavior in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. His fuller theory depicted humans as fully social beings, in need of community. This article outlines the “social approbation” theory of human behavior that Smith developed in his Theory of Moral Sentiments and demonstrates how it is in accord with the findings of contemporary evolutionary psychology. It then examines the manner in which this theory suggests workplace democracy as the appropriate organizational form of control for society's sphere of production.Adam Smith, Self-interest, Altruism, Approbation, Cooperation, Workplace democracy

PROSES FONOLOGIS BAHASA KAUR YANG DIPICUFAKTOR EKSTERNAL LINGUISTIK

Proses fonologis bahasa Kaur (salah satu bahasa yang secara genetis termasuk dalam klasifikasi bahasa Melayu Tengah) tidak hanya dipicu oleh faktor internal linguistik, tetapi juga dipicu oleh faktor eksternal linguistik (geografi dan sosial). Topologi wilayah yang beragam, (disertasi) adanya variasi sosial, dan kontak bahasa memunculkan variasi fonologis. Kemunculan variasi fonologis sebagai fenomena pemakaian bahasa (parole) perlu dieksplanasi secara mendalam dengan menggunakan teori Fonologi Transformasi Generatif

Nowhere to Go: A Crisis of Affordability in the Bronx

The state of affordability in the Bronx has Nowhere to Go - the Bronx is in a full out crisis of affordability. New data reveals that more than half of all households in Bronx Community District 5 now pay more than 50% of their income on rent, something unprecedented in the history of New York City. This trend of percent of income spent on rent cannot go any higher without a significant increase in overcrowding and homelessness.Economic hardships and the housing affordability gap are well documented nationally, and are especially acute in the Bronx. About half of all renters nationally, and nearly two-thirds of renters in the Bronx, live in unaffordable housing, and both of those numbers are increasing. The legacy of redlining and disinvestment has had an enormous impact on the Bronx and contributed to poor housing conditions and poverty. Reinvestment work starting in the 1970s thwarted the threats for planned shrinkage in the Bronx and created the housing that became home to immigrants and others seeking to live in New York City. Just as community-led reinvestment by the public and private sectors transformed the old Bronx, investment is still needed today to preserve the new Bronx. Investment is especially needed in the low wage workers that keep the five boroughs running so that these workers can afford to live and thrive in New York City.The report Nowhere to Go: A Crisis of Affordability in the Bronx highlights trends in the data to explain the current economic situation in the Bronx and to help inform policy decisions from a community based perspective. The report was presented at our 30th Anniversary Forum on May 1st, 2013. Panelists at the forum included John Reilly, Executive Director of Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation; Christa Meyers, Senior Director of Research, Evaluation & Planning with the District Public Health Offices at the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene; and Nick Iuviene and Yorman Nuñez from the Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative

Inequality, Social Respectability, Political Power and Environmental Devastation

Although healthy societies may require a degree of material inequality, higher levels of inequality have been linked to negative social consequences ranging from poorer health to lessened democracy. However, the greatest contemporary threat of excessive inequality might be its contribution to increased environmental degradation. Indeed, avoiding devastation of our habitat may be the greatest challenge ever faced by humanity. This article explores the manner in which inequality encourages consumption, by drawing upon Thorstein Veblen’s theory of consumer behavior, whereby in societies in which fluid social mobility is believed possible, inequality encourages households to seek social certification and social status through consumption. Rising inequality strengthens the intensity with which households struggle to maintain social respectability through increased consumption. The ideology, institutions, and behavior generated by this focus on consumption reduce the potential for people to achieve certification of value through more environmentally friendly domains such as work and community. This article also addresses the manner in which inequality impedes responses aimed at reducing environmental damage by augmenting the political power of those whose interests would be harmed by environmental measures. Indeed, the wealthy benefit threefold from pollution: Their disproportionate consumption is made less expensive, their assets yield higher profits, and they are better able to shield themselves from the negative consequences of environmental destruction.Conspicuous consumption, political power, ideology, work quality, community

Hopelessly Mortal: The Role of Mortality Salience, Immortality and Trait Self-esteem in Personal Hope

Do people lose hope when thinking about death? Based on Terror Management Theory, we predicted that thoughts of death (i.e., mortality salience) would reduce personal hope for people low, but not high, in self-esteem, and that this reduction in hope would be ameliorated by promises of immortality. In Studies 1 and 2, mortality salience reduced personal hope for people low in self-esteem, but not for people high in self-esteem. In Study 3, mortality salience reduced hope for people low in self-esteem when they read an argument that there is no afterlife, but not when they read “evidence” supporting life after death. In Study 4, this effect was replicated with an essay affirming scientific medical advances that promise immortality. Together, these findings uniquely demonstrate that thoughts of mortality interact with trait self-esteem to cause changes in personal hope, and that literal immortality beliefs can aid psychological adjustment when thinking about death. Implications for understanding personal hope, trait self-esteem, afterlife beliefs and terror management are discussed

ANALISIS SEMIOTIKA PADA MOTIF BATIK BESUREK SEBAGAI UPAYA PELESTARIAN DAN ALTERNATIF BAHAN AJAR BAHASA INDONESIA

Penelitian ini mengkaji analisis semiotika pada motif batik Besurek. Jenis penelitian ini adalah kualitatif dengan metode deskriptif. Pengumpulan data menggunakan instrumen penelitian, yaitu peneliti sendiri dibantu alat pemotret, lembaran pencatatan, pengamatan, pedoman wawancara, dan studi pustaka.Tujuan penilitian ini mendeskripsikan analisis semiotika motif batik Besurek sebagai upaya pelestarian dan alternatif bahan ajar bahasa Indonesia. Analisis semiotika tersebut sebagai berikut. (1) Mendeskripsikan analisis semiotika pada motif kaligrafi; (2) Mendeskripsikan analisis semiotika pada motif rafflesia; (3) Mendeskripsikan analisis semiotika pada motif burung kuau; (4) Mendeskripsikan analisis semiotika pada motif relung paku (5) Mendeskripsikan analisis semiotika pada motif rembulan; (6) semiotika batik Besurek sebagai upaya pelestarian dan alternatif bahan ajar bahasa Indonesia. Bertitik tolak dari penjelasan tersebut maka penelitian ini penting untuk dilakukan dengan judul “Analisis Semiotika Pada Motif Batik Besurek sebagai Upaya Pelestarian dan Alternatif Bahan Ajar Bahasa Indonesia.

Rising Inequality and the Financial Crises of 1929 and 2008

Inequality increased dramatically in the decades leading up to the financial crises of both 1929 and 2008. Yet students of both crises have largely ignored any role that rising inequality might have played in rendering the financial sector more vulnerable to systemic dysfunction. This study draws upon the work of Thorstein Veblen, Michal Kalecki, and Karl Marx to clarify the manner in which growing inequality prior to both crises made U.S. financial markets more prone to systemic dysfunction. Greater inequality generated three dynamics that heightened conditions in which these financial crises might occur. The first is that greater inequality meant that individuals were forced to struggle harder to find ways to consume more to maintain their relative social status, thereby reducing their savings and increasing their indebtedness. The second is that holding ever greater income and wealth, the elite flooded financial markets with credit, helping keep interest rates low and encouraging the creation of new credit instruments. The third dynamic is that, as the rich took larger shares of income and wealth, they gained more command over ideology and hence politics. Reducing the size of government, tax cuts for the rich, deregulating the economy, and failing to regulate newly evolving credit instruments flowed out of this ideology.

Increasing Inequality, Status Insecurity, Ideology, and the Financial Crisis of 2008

The current financial crisis has been blamed on inadequate regulation stemming from laissez-faire ideology, combined with low interest rates. But beneath these widely-acknowledged causal factors lies a deeper underlying determining cause that has received less notice: the dramatic increase in inequality in the U.S. over the preceding 35 years. This rise in inequality generated three phenomena that heightened conditions in which this crisis could occur. The first is that greater inequality meant that individuals were forced to struggle harder to find ways to consume more to maintain their relative social status. The consequence was that over the preceding three decades household saving rates plummeted, workers worked longer hours, and households took on ever-greater debt. The second phenomenon is that, flush with ever greater income and wealth, the elite were able to flood financial markets with credit, helping keep interest rates low and encouraging the creation of new credit instruments. The third phenomenon is that, as the rich took larger shares of income and wealth, they gained relatively more command over everything, including ideology. Reducing the size of government, deregulating the economy, and failing to regulate newly evolving credit instruments flowed out of this ideology.deregulation, real estate boom, credit, conspicuous consumption, social respectability

Creative Destruction, Economic Insecurity, Stress and Epidemic Obesity

The percentage of Americans who are obese has doubled since 1980. Most attempts to explain this "obesity epidemic" have been found inadequate, including the "Big Two" (the increased availability of inexpensive food and the decline of physical exertion). This article explores the possibility that the obesity epidemic is substantially due to growing insecurity, stress, and a sense of powerlessness in modern society where high-sugar and high-fat foods are increasingly omnipresent. Those suffering these conditions may suffer less control over other domains of their lives. Insecurity and stress have been found to increase the desire for high-fat and high sugar foods. After exploring the evidence of a link between stress and obesity, the increasing pace of capitalism's creative destruction and its generation of greater insecurity and stress are addressed. The article ends with reflections on how epidemic obesity is symptomatic of a social mistake –- the seeking of maximum efficiency and economic growth even in societies where the fundamental problem of material security has been solved.Social gradient obesity, endogenous preferences, cortisol, inequality, thrifty genes, rational choice model