Re: Decaying Capitalist Economy
Greetings, On Tue, 9 Dec 1997, Dave Markland wrote: Shawgi wrote: The other major problem caused by the basic internal contradiction is that private ownership of the means of production determines that the motive behind production is the creation of maximum capitalist profit. (snip) As long as there is class society, as long as there is private ownership of the means of production there cannot be efficient use of the productive forces. The lesson of Yugoslavia shows us the problem with such statements (as well as the myopia of "Market Socialism"). They eliminated private ownership but kept the market, resulting in the inefficiencies of that social construct. further, the market deepened class divisions in society. Regards, dave Shawgi wrote: Dave, I don't understand your observation here. I was pointing to the dubiousness of an assertion like "as long as there is private ownership of the means of production there cannot be efficient use of the productive forces". In a system of Market Socialism (which I know you did not mention, but it helps illustrate my point), there is no private ownership but we don't see "efficient use of productive forces". Thus, eliminating private ownership is at best a necessary, but not sufficient cause of efficient use of productive forces. Sorry for the confusion- i was trying to keep it short. Regards, Dave Ok, Dave. Thanks for the clarification. Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Decaying Capitalist Economy
Greetings, On Mon, 8 Dec 1997, Dave Markland wrote: Shawgi wrote: The other major problem caused by the basic internal contradiction is that private ownership of the means of production determines that the motive behind production is the creation of maximum capitalist profit. (snip) As long as there is class society, as long as there is private ownership of the means of production there cannot be efficient use of the productive forces. The lesson of Yugoslavia shows us the problem with such statements (as well as the myopia of "Market Socialism"). They eliminated private ownership but kept the market, resulting in the inefficiencies of that social construct. further, the market deepened class divisions in society. Regards, dave Dave, I don't understand your observation here. The passages you abstracted from my post say nothing about so-called "market socialism." In fact, my entire post says nothing about "market socialism." Basically, the post brings to the fore the objective features of capitalist society, a form of class society, and the basic contradiction of capitalism (social labor, private ownership) which is demanding resolution. It points to how and why capitalism is decaying and the need for abolishing capitalist private property and ushering in socialist society by harmonizing the forces and relations of production. Throughout the post the need for scientific planning of the economy, for calculated human intervention in the economy and for doing away with the reckless operation of the law of value are highlighted. The point is also made that classes and not only the exploitation of persons by persons must be abolished. The so-called "free market" is exposed for what it is: a euphemism for the anarchy of production inherent to capitalism. Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Decaying Capitalist Economy
Shawgi wrote: The other major problem caused by the basic internal contradiction is that private ownership of the means of production determines that the motive behind production is the creation of maximum capitalist profit. (snip) As long as there is class society, as long as there is private ownership of the means of production there cannot be efficient use of the productive forces. The lesson of Yugoslavia shows us the problem with such statements (as well as the myopia of "Market Socialism"). They eliminated private ownership but kept the market, resulting in the inefficiencies of that social construct. further, the market deepened class divisions in society. Regards, dave Shawgi wrote: Dave, I don't understand your observation here. I was pointing to the dubiousness of an assertion like "as long as there is private ownership of the means of production there cannot be efficient use of the productive forces". In a system of Market Socialism (which I know you did not mention, but it helps illustrate my point), there is no private ownership but we don't see "efficient use of productive forces". Thus, eliminating private ownership is at best a necessary, but not sufficient cause of efficient use of productive forces. Sorry for the confusion- i was trying to keep it short. Regards, Dave
Decaying Capitalist Economy
Official political economy has great difficulty dealing with any of the problems of the capitalist economy. It has become the most obscurantist and mystified science, the most detached from the reality it is supposed to explain. The social means of production and production itself are held in private hands. All these private interests have their own preoccupations and concerns for the wellbeing of their private property and fruits of production which they own. How can there be any scientific planning for the economy as a whole, that is to say socialist planning? There is certainly planning in favor of the most powerful sections of the capitalist class but this is not planning of the economy, it is merely taking measures to favor one section of the capitalists over the others, or possibly oblige the demands of the capitalist class as a whole. This capitalist planning leaves the basic economic relations in society intact. Capitalist planning means free rein for the anarchy of production in the society as a whole. There is no human scientific intervention to coordinate production and consumption. There is no socialist planning to assure that the means of production are systematically expanded to assure the future wellbeing of the people. There is no humanization of the social and natural environment. In order to fool the people, the capitalists have created a mysterious fetish of their opposition to socialist planning, euphemistically calling the existing"anarchy of production" as the "free market economy" whose "hidden hand" somehow "regulates" the economy. They even give it magical powers, that without scientific human guidance this "hidden hand" regulates all aspects of the economy and creates the best possible world that humans can possibly devise. The reality that capitalist societies are always in crisis, facing problem after problem that rains down on the heads of the people is of no consequence to these soothsayers. The fact that right from its earliest beginnings capitalism has suffered recession after recession, inter-capitalist war after inter-capitalist war is completely discounted. There is no truth whatsoever, empirical or theoretical, which can prove that at any time the so called free market economy or its hidden hand have actually regulated production and consumption or any of the other economic contradictions. The truth of the matter is that capitalist society exhibits a permanent army of unemployed, growing impoverishment and is in perpetual crisis giving rise to increasingly disastrous wars, disease and human want. The other major problem caused by the basic internal contradiction is that private ownership of the means of production determines that the motive behind production is the creation of maximum capitalist profit. This motive renders production and people as merely incidental to this unswerving aim of maximum capitalist profit. In the final analysis, neither production nor people matter. If there is no capitalist profit to be made there is no need for production. By a simple arithmetical equation, if there is no need for production there is obviously no need for people either. Such a system creates a perpetual state of panic and insecurity in a growing section of the populace which does not know what is going to happen to them from one day to the next. The entire relationship between things and people becomes distorted to the extent that things and their cruelty dominate over the people and their humaneness. This distortion is observed in representative democracy and the current political process in which people are called upon to vote every few years but have no say either in governance or in the economic affairs of the society. In addition to the main contradiction making up the "internal basis" of the "way forward," there are also extenuating circumstances. Policies of the governments can give rise to extenuating circumstances for the "way forward." Under the present system without the resolution of the main contradiction, the policies of the government, especially the anti-social offensive, only serve to sharpen the conflict between the social process of production and the private appropriation of the fruits of production. These extenuating circumstances can be internal to the economic system as is the case with the current worldwide anti-social offensive which is bound to trigger an even greater economic crisis. The anti-social offensive, contrary to the claims of big labour that eliminating the deficit by the year 2000 will allow capitalism to recover, will not solve any of the problems but will give rise to an even greater recession. The anti-social offensive is starving the basic economy of its productive capabilities, taking money out of the economy and concentrating on redistributing already produced value. The world has become awash with casinos, luxuries, armaments and rationalized production systems. Health, education, social programs and basic
Re: Decaying Capitalist Economy
The other major problem caused by the basic internal contradiction is that private ownership of the means of production determines that the motive behind production is the creation of maximum capitalist profit. (snip) As long as there is class society, as long as there is private ownership of the means of production there cannot be efficient use of the productive forces. The lesson of Yugoslavia shows us the problem with such statements (as well as the myopia of "Market Socialism"). They eliminated private ownership but kept the market, resulting in the inefficiencies of that social construct. further, the market deepened class divisions in society. Regards, dave
