Re: [Marxism] a heroic defense of markets

["farmelantj@xxxxxxxx" <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

I think the comment there from Charlie
was most apropos. He wrote:

"Though Butler's argument is self-evidently 
naive drivvle, Harman doesn't do a great 
job of undermining his position. Butler 
makes a good point when he talks about 
theory and practice - how Harman is 
using examples from the present example 
of capitalism in practice (with state 
intervention) with which Butler purportedly 
has no truck.

"The major point to make (a point which 
could have been made easier, I think, 
with the example of the Irish potato 
famine rather than the Wall Street Crash) 
is that Capitalism is totally dependant 
upon the State, and that increases in 
State involvement arise as a direct 
RESULT of capitalism's failure to work 
out its own problems. This point is 
only maringally touched upon in Harman's 
assertion that 'Nation States' have always 
been bound up in markets, but not linked 
into the idea that markets and nation states 
are actually structurally linked. Butler 
is well entitled to retort: "my point exactly"

"The point is, that State intervention DOES 
hamper the ability of the market to perform 
its functions. However, without State intervention, 
capitalism would have fallen a long time ago 
due to social and political frictions resulting 
from its nature. The Irish Potato Famine 
resolved itself with State intervention 
from the Brits through no want of trying 
to maintain a government totally uninvolved 
in Ireland's economy. This is simply one of 
the internal contradictions of capital - 
how on the one hand the dynamism of the 
capitalist mode of production calls for 
liberalisation, anarchy and expansion, 
and on the other the conservative wing calls 
for temperance, control and order. Both, 
ironically, have the best interests of the 
capitalist system at heart - and both taken 
by themselves would spell its ruin."

Jim F.

-- Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx wrote:


_http://leninology.blogspot.com/2008/10/heroic-defense-of-markets.html_ 
(http://leninology.blogspot.com/2008/10/heroic-defense-of-markets.html) 




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