At 08:31 AM 9/10/98 -0700, I wrote: Robin Hahnel writes:>Marx's prophesy of economic emiseration did not prove true for the first world. < I wish leftists wouldn't imitate the right's labeling of Marx as a prophet and his predictions as "prophecies." Marx's prediction of _relative_ immiseration was very abstract, being along the lines of an "everything else equal" prediction. (Economists are always making these kinds of predictions without being labeled "prophets." One thing that distinguished Marx from the crowd is that he didn't limit his predictions to small issues.) As Paul Sweezy pointed out in the first chapter of THE THEORY OF CAPITALIST DEVELOPMENT, it's a prediction for abstract capitalism, ignoring such matters as imperialism and trade unions which can counteract the prediction's working out in specific countries. If capitalism DOESN'T fits Marx's abstract capitalism, the prediction doesn't work very well without bringing in all of the complicating factors into the analysis. But if capitalism fits Marx's abstract description, the prediction works better. It seems to be working pretty well these days, even in the "first world." I added the word "DOESN'T" because I forgot to put it in there the first time. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://clawww.lmu.edu/Departments/ECON/jdevine.html
