"I didn't say big money controls, Doug Henwood did. Go bother him."
Eh?
"Of course big money influences politics. Marxians share that insight with
everybody else. "
"I think deregulating everything is a good idea -- I am an ideologue. But I
look at the history of the 20th Century, and I see the power and scope of
the state increasing
everywhere. And, as a reader of Mancur Olson and other public choice
theorists, I see the growth of the power and scope of the state as inherent
in the state -- the logic of collective action -- so I am a pessimist.
Therefore, I need to understand airline deregulation, because it doesn't fit
the theory on its face -- it gives me hope."
Hope of what, exactly? Dereg is supposed to bring lower prices and more
competition. But neither of these has happened. I suppose this goes with
being an ideologue, but why is this kind of competition good if even the
things that boosters say are good about it don't come about?
Marx's theory of the state is notoriously incomplete. I don't know if you'd
get anywhere with it, especially in this case, if it weren't supplemented
with some kind of Gramscian notion of hegemony. I haven't studied the lit of
the period, but I'd be surprised if the reps of the airline industry didn't
understood full well the _malign_ invisible hand, and rightly feared it. The
utopian idea of ruthless competition, while noble in pedigree, surely hasn't
always enjoyed the cachet that it currently does.
Christian
