On 3/12/07, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On 3/12/07, Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Why did the White House invade Iraq? Why are the Democrats boosting the war
funding ...?
> At this stage, it's the idea of "why not take a bigger loss, if there's some chance
I can turn it into a gain" that keeps Washington politicians going. It's especially easy
for them to do so, since they are gambling with other people's money. <
there's also the matter of sunk costs: "we" invested trillions of
dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq, so "we" should continue with
the folly. Basic economic theory tells us that the past investment is
irrelevant to decisions about what we should do in the future.[*] But
real-world human beings don't act that way.
Of course, mere psychology doesn't help very much with the
understanding of socio-economic forces and structures.
It would be interesting if someone attempted a theory of imperialism
that mediates "socio-economic forces and structures" with
psychological structures of the ruling class and the power elite. I
think Sartre once criticized Marxist theory for neglecting to provide
such a mediating link.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
