[Marxism] Marx was a "restricted" consumptionist

["Charles Brown" <charlesb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

S. Artesian wrote:


<But perhaps Charles can strengthen his position by showing how in  
fact the
recent crises in capitalist reproduction have in fact been a product  
of its
barriers to consumption-- let's try a small crisis first-- say  
2001-2003 and
how declining consumption triggered that crisis. Then let's try a big  
one,
the current one, and show us how declining consumption, whe by every
measure, the US population was consuming their brains out, has triggered
that-- and remember we are talking about capitalism as a system, not a
particular industry, like auto, or a particular company, like Chrysler.>

^^^
CB: Marx doesn't say that the
 poverty and restricted 
consumption of the masses
 _triggers_ crises. He says 
they are the _ultimate reason_ for 
all crises. Different things might
 be the "straw that breaks 
the camel's back" in any 
specific crisis.



"The ultimate reason for all
real crises always remains the
poverty and restricted consumption
of the masses as opposed to the
drive of capitalist production to develop
the productive forces as though only
the absolute consuming power of 
society constituted their outer limit "
(Capital vol. III, Moscow, 1959, pp.
472-73) ; quoted in _The Development
of Capitalism in Russia_ by Lenin






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