Reply to Hinrich

[Philip L Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I wrote:
>>Since capitalism is the society of *generalised
>>commodity production*, ie the society in which the dominant form of
>>production is the production of commodities (goods for sale on the market)


Hinrich wrote in response:
>Your generalisation doesn't seem to differ from George's premisse: "So the
>capitalist mode of production can prevail in more than one society."


No, my point is clearly different from George's.  The capitalist mode of
production cannot prevail in other societies.  Capitalism is the society in
which commodity production is dominant.  That is what is most distinct
about capitalism.  There is no other form of society in which commodity
production is dominant, and thus no other form of society in which wealth
can be measured in commodities.

In pre-capitalist societies (whether feudalism or the slave systems of
antiquity, or the 'primitive communism' of pre-class societies all over the
globe), production was not carried out predominantly for the market.  There
was *some* commodity production in a whole range of societies before
capitalism, but it was marginal not dominant.

In post-capitalist societies, like the former Soviet bloc or Cuba or China,
production was also not for the market and not ruled by the law of value
(although I think in China it is going back that way, and in the Soviet
bloc it already has).

Philip Ferguson