Re: [Marxism] Not 'RoP' but '% of total profits' - duh. Re: US profitscollapse in 4th qtr

[John <johnedmundson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2009-03-29 at 04:14 +0000, sabocat59@xxxxxxx wrote:
> S. Artesian wrote:
> 
> no part or whole of the bureaucracy successfully resolved that problem,
>  with what 33% (?) of the population still tethered to agricultural
>  production by the 1980s (those who think China is more than a paper
>  dragon need to keep the crucial role of agricultural productivity in
>  focus as 2/3 of China's population is bound to the countryside with
>  agricultural productivity a pathetic fraction of the US measure)
>  -------------------------------------
> 
> As a side note, shouldn't we reconsider the stageist and
>  developmentalist framework presupposed above? 
> 
> Isn't it high time to reconceptualize what it means to be an advanced
>  society?
> 
> Given the ecological crisis, having two-thirds of the population of
>  China engaged in sustainable agriculture is not necessarily a bad
>  thing, while we here in the USA could use many more organic farms than
>  exist currently. Having so much of the population alienated from the
>  land puts us at a distinct disadvantage. 
> 
> We could learn much from the example of Cuba in that respect. So could China. 

But Chinese agriculture has nothing to do with developing a better model
to avoid economic crisis. Chinese agriculture in no way represents a
step towards "an advanced society". It's the bit that's been most left
behind. I've just come back from China and from what I saw, and from
people I visited and spoke to, Chinese farmers are as poor and third
world as all the reports suggest. And China is not self sufficient in
food as far as I am aware. Chinese farming is very labour intensive and
inefficient. The solution is not the Chinese "approach", which is not an
approach at all - just an outcome of the trajectory China is on. The
solution is a system whereby agriculture is sustainable, protects or
better still restores the environment, *and* frees people from menial
labour rather than returning them to it.
Cheers,
John


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