Re: [Marxism] John Bellamy Foster: Can the financial crisis be reversed? | Links

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If Alvarado can't make concrete criticisms of what others write, or present
coherent ideas of his own and defend them at a more-or-less normal
intellectual level, I suggest he go back to lurking.  There are things about
this crisis that are sure to inspire needs for self-expression, and that may
well be one of its positive consequences, but not all of it belongs on THIS
list. 

I can see discussing the pros and cons of Sweezy-Magdoff-Bellamy's
long-standing tendency to see underconsumption as the irremediable
contradiction of capitalism. I think it is the declining rate of profit
rooted in its progressive function of increasing the productivity of human
labor. The latter does not exclude the fact that the capitalist crisis and
dynamics do generate a declining consumption of working people -- not only
here but worldwide -- that becomes an important force escalating the crisis
itself, a problem for the rulers and not just for us.

And I can also see value in discussing what seems to me his basic political
perspective, which seems sound to me, of concentrating our efforts and
discussion not on how the capitalist government should go about solving the
crisis, if such can be done in the near future, but on what oppressed and
exploited people can do to defend and advance their interests in this
situation, up to and including "socialism of the 21st century."

But at this point, Alvarado is wasting our time and perhaps his as well,
since his remarks are impossible for this list to meaningfully discuss.




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