[PEN-L:11513] Re: Home Mortgage Deduction

["James Michael Craven" <CRAVJM@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From:          "William S. Lear" <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>
> > Subject:       [PEN-L:11509] Re: Home Mortgage Deduction
>
> > On Tue, July 29, 1997 at 13:50:38 (-0700) Max B. Sawicky writes:
> > >> this be held socially, how do you square that view with the historical
> > >> fact that productive property was originally stolen from workers
> > >> through enclosures and other means backed by state violence, and is
> > >> now maintained in the hands of the few by threat or outright violence?
> > >
> > >I ignore that view.  I don't know what we're supposed to
> > >do about land expropriation that occurred x-hundred
> > >years ago.  The remainder of your description is a
> > >fevered characterization of the routine enforcement of
> > >laws concerning private property.  As I indicated above,
> > >I don't think socializing some property is as important as
> > >other goals, nor that it is well-founded in many cases.
> >
> > Thanks for the lecture, but we're not only talking about expropriation
> > of land that occurred "x-hundred years ago" or this year for that
>
> Well if we're talking about agrarian reform via land redistribution
> in the less-developed countries right now that's cool with me.  You
> said enclosure and I thought you were talking about Merrye Olde
> England.
>
> > matter, since that still occurs around the world under the aegis of
> > the World Bank and its buddies.  I suppose, following this logic, one
> > might as well pretend that slavery never existed when arguing about
> > current problems with racism.  I suppose, further, that you have never
> > .  .  .
>
> All you are doing is asserting that private ownership
> of any substantial body of capital inexorably implies
> all the evil deeds to which you refer, then you're trying
> to cast moral implications on my expected (and accurately
> so) refusal to swallow this assertion.
>
> Did you have a real question?
>
> Cheers,
>
> MBS
>
>
> "People say I'm arrogant, but I know better."
>
>                               -- John Sununu
>
> ===================================================
> Max B. Sawicky            Economic Policy Institute
> maxsaw@xxxxxxxxx          1660 L Street, NW
> 202-775-8810 (voice)      Ste. 1200
> 202-775-0819 (fax)        Washington, DC  20036
> http://epn.org/sawicky
>
> Opinions above do not necessarily reflect the views
> of anyone associated with the Economic Policy
> Institute other than this writer.
> ===================================================

Response (Jim C): Certainly forms as well as structures of ownership
and control of various forms of property--along with the contextual
imperatives governing the survival and expanded reproduction of
property andproperty relations--have something to do with the
structures of uses and effects of property ownership and control.

Even the so-called benevolent capitalist, who says I'm building a
corporate entity but in service to humanity soon finds out the nature
of the illusion. The capitalist says, but to be of service to
humanity, this productive entity has to survive and grow in a
highly competitive environment. That means that tactics of effective
survival and enhanced competitive posture are dictated by the
extremes the opposition is willing to go to and the "rules of the
game" and unless I survive and grow, ehance productivity and
competitive posture, I won't be around to do all those wonderful
things for humanity. So I'll do a few Faustian deals in accomodation
to the "realities of competitive capitalism" but I'm not really a pig
or even want to act like a pig, it is just that my competitors are
pigs and since long-run survival depends upon short-run maximization
and survival, I'll have to do some nasty crap to survive in the long-
run and do all those wonderful things for humanity that my pig
competitors would never do as they are into their own power, egoism,
profit maximization, destruction of competitors (including me).

It is sort of like some of the Faustian deals that some of the
academics make: I'll infiltrate the system, get my tenure, then after
I'm full professor with no one able to touch me and with a reputation
(acquired through publishing mainstream crap) that will allow me to
do whatever I want, then the real revolutionary me will come out and
I will indeed undo all the crap I wrote and it will be apparent that
I have been acting in service of humanity all along.

Certainly forms and structures and contexts of ownership and control
of property and property relations have a whole lot to do with the
deleterious anti-social uses as well as effects of private property.
The fundamental imperative of private property is to keep it private,
growing, increasingly competitive and increasingly predatory viz a
viz new profit opportunities and potential competitors.

                                 Jim Craven

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