Links, Tuesday 20th May

A Marxist perspective on the relatively high rate of return on capital.

"Money, land, real estate and plant and equipment that are not being used productively are not capital. If the rate of return on the capital that is being used is high then this is because a part of capital is withdrawn from circulation and in effect goes on strike. Restricting the supply of capital to new investment (a phenomena we are now witnessing) ensures a high rate of return on that capital which is in circulation. The creation of such artificial scarcity is not only what the oil companies do to ensure their high rate of return: it is what all capital does when given the chance. This is what underpins the tendency for the rate of return on capital (no matter how it is defined and measured) to always exceed the rate of growth of income. This is how capital ensures its own reproduction, no matter how uncomfortable the consequences are for the rest of us." David Harvey

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An interesting piece about a home for retired sex workers in Mexico City. While the journalists do a good job, it would nevertheless have been preferable to hear these women's story in their own words. Slate

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Terrible writing (including use of the P-word) and probably should be taken with a pinch of salt, but still an interesting character study. Metro

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Making a case for transparency in business management. The case for salary transparency is strong too, though this is very seldom embraced.

"Sharing information about individual salaries is still very rare, for obvious reasons. But consider: In the wake of the firing of Jill Abramson, executive editor of the New York Times, there were reports that Abramson had battled ownership over getting fair pay in comparison to her predecessor in the job. Salary transparency could put an end to these kinds of conflicts. Still, most open-book firms choose to reveal payroll outlays in the aggregate." Slate

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An interview with the person who invented the "interrupter" approach to tackling street violence. Slate

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"I used to say that the way I know I'm being accepted as a woman is when the average men's estimation of my intelligence drops by 50 percent," Huff Post

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"Normally, self-affirmation is reserved for instances in which identity is threatened in direct ways: race, gender, age, weight, and the like. Here, Nyhan decided to apply it in an unrelated context: Could recalling a time when you felt good about yourself make you more broad-minded about highly politicized issues, like the Iraq surge or global warming? As it turns out, it would. On all issues, attitudes became more accurate with self-affirmation, and remained just as inaccurate without. That effect held even when no additional information was presented—that is, when people were simply asked the same questions twice, before and after the self-affirmation." New Yorker

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This is actually quite useful: Cracked on negotiating tactics.

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"Where I live, sex work is semi-decriminalized. While I was being trafficked, this helped me in a number of ways

• it meant I was able to work in safety
• i was able to be part of a supportive community with other women
• via working in a brothel, i was able to avoid my ex and his violence for periods of time
• i had access to peer-based organizations
• i had access to cost price condoms
• i had access to safer sex information via outreach workers
• i has access to free and confidential STI screening and vaccination
• i was able to avoid some of his abuse by supplying the money he needed to feed his drug habit with enough left over to take care of my family

If I was working under criminalization, none of this would’ve existed. I would have been subject to brothel raids (which could’ve resulted in my having a criminal record and the trauma associated with it), police violence, no confidential services (and trust me, if services aren’t confidential, people don’t use them), and unsafe working conditions." Rumplestiltsqueer

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A good piece at Cracked about some of the difficulties faced by the deaf community. Cracked

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An experiment in polyamorous communal living in Brooklyn. Poly in the Media

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I wouldn't have it any other way...

"But however much morning people look down on those whose inner clock is set a little later, there’s an emerging understanding that there are some bright sides to sleeping in, too." New York Mag

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"Culture" is definitely helpful as an explanation, but I always wonder exactly how it's supposed to function as a target for intervention...

"Education campaigns like DrinkAware.ie have been credited with changing perceptions about alcohol use and promoting responsible drinking – and, more importantly, most pubs in Ireland now serve food as well as drink. This might not seem like a big deal to outsiders, but it has been a huge shift in Irish life. The local pub has always been an important social center, except now, instead of knocking back drinks at the bar, Irish people can enjoy drinking and eating" Guardian