Re: [Marxism] Did Keynesianism save Japan? Will it save the US?

[abu hartal <abuhartal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joaquin writes in regards to falling birth rates:> This has been true of the 
dominant nationalities of ALL major imperialist> countries for quite some time 
now, including and most notably the U.S.A.,> not just Japan since the bubble 
burst there.The US birth rate has not been falling largely due to higher birth 
rates among Latinos.It is true that the Japanese birth rate has been falling 
for forty years, but rather thanmaking a demographic transition to near 
replacement level reproduction rates, the birthrate has plunged well below 
replacement rates in the last twenty or so years, it seems, creatingwhat is 
called the shousika society.> > That capitalism right now may be unable to 
allow regular working people to> engage in as much wasteful consumption as had 
been the case is the problem> that the Abu Hartal post focuses on, but I think 
on a deeper level, the> problem that capitalist society can't find another way 
to exist than by> transforming the population of imperialist metropolis into 
insatiable> mindless consumers is a social disease that deserves far closer 
attention. I don't agree with this. I think the problem is that people don't 
have enoughnon-work time (work too many hours), access to affordable child care 
and qualityeducation, and income security for working mothers. For many 
advancedcapitalist countries to prevent demographic collapse (including for non 
Latinos in the US),  we will have to exchange increased private consumption for 
greater leisure time and more public goods in an ecologically sustainable 
system of production. This will not provecompatible with corporate capitalism, 
I suspect.Yet knowing the Marxist literature fairly well, I am surprised that 
there is so little discussionof demographic collapse. There was a book by 
Sydney Coontz fifty years ago on the topic.But perhaps the problem goes back to 
a focus on economic production itself rather than the totalprocess of human 
reproduction, as Susan Himmelweit once argued. Abu


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