[PEN-L:6870] Re: reform or revolution? revisited

[bill mitchell <ECWFM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>Suppose one is teaching intro econ to "typical" (?) university students,
>which means mainstream range of conservative, and some liberal ideas,
>including many who will either in school or later go into "business."
>
>Do you (I'm asking for your personal opinions here) teach that corporations
>*must* e.g. open non-union shops, invest abroad where labor is cheaper,
>skimp on quality, etc., in order to compete in capitalist markets, thereby
>reinforcing those tendencies in those who are or will be in business; or
>
>do you teach that unions can increase productivity; "environmentally
>friendly commodities" can be profitable, and the like, thereby reinforcing
>liberal tendencies at the cost of pushing "socialism" away?

Dear Blair

I don't teach first year but i do teach 2nd year.  i tell my students that i
think there in an ineluctable logic to capitalism - a dynamic which defines the
system.....distributional conflict (arising from ownership disparity), the
role of the rate of profit and the impossibility of full employment (much less
the desirability of it....given environmental concerns and production
techniques).

within that logic.......there are some things which will make it work better
for the system....that is the cappos. i say to them that most nearly all things
that a re better for people are worse for cappos and vice versa.

so para (a) above is right.
and para (b) creates conflict and crises.

i tell them that within capitalism it might be possible to escape and create
community -based green production cultures where people and nature replace the
rate of profit as the goal and ownership becomes a second order of smallness
issue.

but i don't resile from agreeing that unions can create unemployment and are
open always (through petty greed) to being divided and conquered.

that's a start

kind regards
bill


--

         ####    ##       William F. Mitchell
       #######   ####     Head of Economics Department
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"only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned
and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."
(Cree Indian saying...circa 1909)