Re: "Socialist command type economy in Iraq"????

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

Title: RE: [PEN-L] "Socialist command type economy in Iraq"????

I wrote:
> > as Fred Engels noted, capitalism involves socialized production _and_
> > individualized appropriation of wealth (a unity of  "opposites"). Thus,
> > nothing is really totally individualized ("private") or totally socialized
> > ("public").

Ian:
> Would it not be more accurate to say that even the manner in which
> individuals appropriate wealth is socially decided upon?

"societies" don't decide anything, so how can something be "socially decided upon"? The society we live under -- capitalism -- is inherited from the past, from a series of historical struggles between classes and within classes, affected by other social structures such as patriarchy and ethnicity along with unique historical events (it's not like someone decided to set it up). This system involves generally-accepted "rules" (often broken) about "the manner in which individuals appropriate wealth."

Of course, some people (class-conscious richies and working-class scabs) decide to defend & preserve this system, while others (opportunistic capitalists and class-conscious workers) try to undermine it, with both sides perhaps not knowing exactly what they're doing. This encourages changes in the system and the "rules."

------------------------
Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine