Michael Yates (economist)

Michael D. Yates (born 1946) is an economist and a labor educator, and associate editor of the socialist magazine Monthly Review (MR).

He advocates a socialist view of economics.

Yates was born in a small coal mining town about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His grandmother worked on a barge boat as a cook and a servant for families in Manhattan, Newport and other wealthy enclaves. His immediate family had a long history working at dangerous, unhealthy jobs in the coal mines. At the age of 14, his mother took a job unloading dynamite at the entrance of the coal mines. His mother, uncle and grandmother all suffered from severe asthma from the dust generated by the mines. His father suffered emphysema from inhaling asbestos and silica dust at work.

Life for the Yates was a difficult one. Yates' father did not live with the family; the only employment he could get was in a glass factory several miles away. The Yates home did not have running water or an indoor toilet, and was owned by the mining company. When Michael was one year old, his mother moved the family to be with his father.

These experiences had a deep impact on Yates, radicalizing him. As the Vietnam War intensified while he was a graduate student, his leftist tendencies strengthened:

Yates attended graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh (UP) from 1967 to 1973, although only the first two years were full-time.

In the summer of 1968, Yates received his induction notice. With the encouragement of an academic advisor, he applied for a teaching position at UP's satellite campus in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He was appointed an assistant professor in 1969. He worked part-time on his degree while teaching. Teaching deepened his radicalism, and he abandoned once and for all the neoclassical economics he had been taught. He also participated in union organizing activities, first with the maintenance and custodial workers on campus and then with the teachers.

...
Wikipedia