[PEN-L:8292] Bengali famine

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Doug Orr:
>I am not sure about India, but Ireland exported food throughout the
>potatoe famine.  So you see Louis, it really is the free market at work.


I'll tell you the truth. After answering DeLong on the Bengali famine, it
dawned on me--particularly after reading Jim Devine's interesting
follow-up--that I really wasn't sure about the point DeLong was trying to
make. He is awfully good at what is called misdirection, kind of like the
backcourt play of a good NBA point guard the NY Knicks need. Was he saying
that the absence of markets or the presence of markets was the cause of the
Bengal famine? I frankly don't have a clue. Part of the problem with these
neoliberal economists is that they tend to view capitalism as some kind of
ideal that is struggling with anti-market imperfections. But hasn't
capitalism (and imperialism) historically been wedded to anti-market
mechanisms? Wasn't the British East India Company antithetical to Adam
Smith's ideals, as he even stated explicitly? Isn't the Bengali famine an
outgrowth of these policies dating back to the 17th century? On the other
hand, is the cure laissez-faire capitalism? If the capitalist is free to
invest, and the state does not interfere with his decisions, isn't the
result famine just the same? Export agriculture in Latin America might
proceed by the "Wealth of Nations" textbook, but the result is hunger and
premature deaths from malnutrition. The answer is to be found in what
Marxists have always called for, production for human need rather than profit.



Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)