(OPE-L) Re: Rising organic composition

[gerald_a_levy <gerald_a_levy@xxxxxxx>]

Paul C wrote on  Friday, May 30:

> I dont claim any expertise on demographics, but it is fairly evident
> that once a country becomes fully industrialised the birth rate falls
> dramatically.
> Reasons for this will be many, the dissolution of patriarchal economic
> relations and the participation of women in the labour market, the
> availability of contraception on a general basis, the replacement
> of filial piety by state pensions and mutual funds. Whatever the
> detailed causes, the fact remains that a couple of generations after
> industrialisation capitalist countries seem dependent on immigration
> to ensure population growth.

With the possible exception of increasing participation of women in
the labour market, there is no reason to think that any of the above
developments are *necessary* consequences of the development of
capitalism.  So, if your explanation for population change ultimately
rests on accidental or historically contingent reasons, then your
explanation for why the OCC rises and the rate of profit will fall
also becomes subject to historical accident and contingency.  Since
you also, on May 20, refer to how this contradiction will "seal its fate",
your explanation implies that whether the fate of capitalism will be
"sealed" depends on whether the contingencies that you have suggested
re population change actually develop as you anticipate.

In solidarity, Jerry