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Labor Incentives in Catalonia

The title is of course ironic. It refers to the basic difference between socialism and capitalism -- that under capitalism people are free to pursue their own individual good, whereas under socialism some wise and good folk must compel them to serve the greater good.


Ronald Fraser Blood of Spain, page 218, quotes Luis Santacana: He boasts of achieving a wage cut of privileged workers, and says:

That was magnificent. Achieved without any violence on our part.

One does not hear capitalists boasting that violence was unnecessary in order persuade workers to work for a lower wage. The above remark implies that during the "negotiations" the workers knew or suspected that if they refused to work at a lower rate, violence by Luis Santacana's men was a real possibility.

Ronald Fraser Blood of Spain, page 216, quotes Andreu Capdevilla, CNT Militant, first promoted as boss of a textile factory, then later promoted to acting president of the economics council

The real problem was the possibilities of corruption an official position offered: [...] the women who came in attempts to save their husbands or brothers [and offered to sleep with him] I threw them out [...]

Capdevilla is not a CNT cop, or a CNT prison guard, but a CNT economics guy and manager of the textile industry. Nobody goes to the manager of apple and begs him to save their husbands or brothers, though they may beg for a high promotion and a sinecure.

In addition Capdevilla was not elected to his powerful posts, he was appointed from above,


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