Re: Re: Historical Materialism

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Rakesh Bhandari wrote:

> Doug thinks Marx was an underconsumptionist; at the same Doug
> subscribes to the wage led profit squeeze thesis.

See, this is exactly what I was thinking of when I quoted Callari's
observation that VT is a substitute for politics. I don't think you
could ever prove this conclusively one way or the other using
numbers. But in political terms, it's not the least bit ambiguous -
the ruling class felt like it was losing control in the 1970s.
Workers were sullen and rebellious, the U.S. lost the Vietnam War,
and the Third World was talking about a new world economic order. As
Paul McCracken's report for the OECD put it (and I wish I could find
this exact quote again, it was a beaut), anxiety over inflation was
inseparable from masses in the streets. The rebels were crushed.

Doug