Mick writes ----------- Let us, even so, agree that eight years of Reaganite lectures, howver processed, did not eliminate slums or poverty, did not wipe out drugs or prostitution, did not bring bourgeois comforts to the putatively oppressed. Schwartz's recommendation is "spending . . . money on infrastructure." Did that work? Paul ---- Yes. Mick reiterates the old upper class prejudices against the undesrving poor that were a staple of ruling class opinion here half a century ago. The experience of the mixed economy here - a mixture of communism, state capitalism and private capitalism that was introduced by the great working class parliament of 1945 indicates that slums, pauperism, and prostitution could be substantially reduced. The black market in drugs was also eliminated by the provision of heroin on prescription to addicts. For the first time since capitalism started, the working classes started to enjoy formerly bourgeois comforts, with unprecedented increases in real wages. The key factor was that the state ensured a sufficiently high rate of capital accumulation to bring about full employment - more job vacancies than unemployed people. Unemployment levels were down around 1%.