Re: Marx and Keynes on Unemployment (fwd)

[Robert Peter Burns <rburns@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following was Mitchell's reply to Gelles:

> JJG quoting me said
> >
> >                  Bill's comments further: "It just goes to
> >        show that despite all the humdrum about the collapse of
> >        socialist thought given that a few corrupt slavic
> >        regimes finally hit the wall, the critical analysis of
> >        Marx and later in the same spirit Kalecki and Sraffa
> >        and on is still relevant and vital."
>
> >             "Sure," Gelles says, -- Cuban, Korean, Cambodian,
> >        German, Chinese and Vietnamese slavs.
>
> well despite the on-going paranoia that the big USA has over the
> tiny Cuba, it hasn't hit the wall,
> despite the paranoia that the big USA has over North Korea it hasn't
> hit the wall,
> Cambodia ?
> Germany (East) was an outpost of the USSR.
> China hasn't hit the wall
> Vietnam - won its independence from colonialism and puppet USA-propped up
> governments by trouncing the USA and OZ in a corrupt and unseemly war. it
> still hasn't hit the wall.
>
> Not that I for one minute suggest that any or all of the above are in any way
> immune from mass criticism.
>
> kind regards
> bill
>

Yes, Bill is right; though I would add that, not only was East Germany
a Soviet satellite, the model followed by Cuba, China, and Vietnam
in both political and economic matters was for a long time essentially
the Soviet one <ditto North Korea, Ethiopia, et al>.  Hence long
lists of "VARIOUS" "failed attempts at socialism" are quite
misleading.  The case of Yugoslavia is ambiguous with respect
to the viability of some form of socialism for many
reasons <for an interesting discussion, see David Schweickart,
AGAINST CAPITALISM Cambridge University Press 1993, and the various
writings of Jaroslav Vanek, eg 'On The Transition from Centrally
Planned to Democratic Socialist Economies' _Economic and Industrial
Democracy_ 11 (May), 179-203>.  Likewise the current state of the
Chinese economy, though problematic, is also suggestive for socialists.

Cheers,

Peter Burns SJ
Jesuit Community
Loyola Marymount University
P. O. Box 45041
Los Angeles, CA 90045
rburns@xxxxxxxxxxx