Re: [Marxism] on manufactured shortages in Venezuela

[Greg McDonald <sabocat59@xxxxxxx>]

I'm glad to see other people weighing in on this issue. Both Joaquin  
and Michael Leibowitz concur that one should expect capital to act in  
predictable ways within the constraints of conservative capitalist  
economics. I agree. There need be nothing conspiratorial about it,  
which is why the other article by Demeester was so puzzling in one  
respect. Why would the government expect capitalists to produce  
without the profit-motive as a guiding principle? Oropeza's plea for  
the industrialists to produce to fulfill demand IS a naive plea. The  
question which Michael Leibowitz left hanging in the air seems to be  
more to the point. "Move in or give in".  I would be interested in  
reading more. From what i can gather, the response of the Chavez  
government seems to be twofold. The Bloomberg article posted by  
Stuart Munckton hints at the strategy. On the one hand, importation  
of milk from Argentina seems to be a policy designed to reinforce the  
government supply chain and overcome the shortages, and is an example  
of moving in. On the other, lifting the price controls on milk so the  
capitalist market can function without distortions is an example of  
giving in. The long term strategy seems to be to supplant the  
capitalist production and supply chain through peasant cooperatives.  
I guess that would be REALLY moving in.

So my question is, in the short term,will the Argentine milk be  
priced lower than the Venezuelan milk, or will it be priced at market  
value? Or will the volume of milk hitting the market automatically  
lower the price?

Greg

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