Re: The economy - a new era?

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

there's an old tradition of contrasting "free competition" with socialism, as if the centralization of capital were the same as socialism. Edward Bellamy's "nationalism" (what might be called "state socialism" today) was based on the idea that the merger of all of the businesses into one big cartel would make it easy to expropriate capital. Schumpeter also seemed to think that the centralization of capital would lead to socialism. 

This view is often merged with the idea that statism = socialism, so that any kind of centralism = socialism. 

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




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eubulides [mailto:paraconsistent@xxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 9:21 AM
> To: PEN-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [PEN-L] The economy - a new era?
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Perelman" <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> 
> 
> Garraty, John A. 1957. Right-Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins
> (NY: Harper and Brothers): p. 219 says that Morgan's right hand man
> argued that the trusts represented a high order of socialism. 
>  "What is
> the difference between the U. S. Steel Corporation ... and a 
> Department
> of Steel as it might be organized by the government?"
> 
> =======================
> 
> "We must get back to competition. If it is impossible then 
> let us go to
> socialism, for there is no way between."
> 
> [William Howard Taft--who also advocated the Federalization of the
> corporate chartering process] [from Martin Sklair's "The Corporate
> Reconstruction of American Capitalism 1890-1916" p. 378]
>