Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy

2000-02-13 Thread Dennis R Redmond
On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, Brad De Long wrote: Neoliberals hope that multinational corporations, financial analysts, bond-fund managers, and bond raters will in the end be able to apply some constructive pressure to improve the situation: better the discipline of the world market than no

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Charles Brown
Doug Henwood [EMAIL PROTECTED] 02/11/00 03:49PM Charles Brown wrote: CB: How about if we make a special stipulation that every Black person except Vernon Jordan gets money ? Or just every Black person with a net worth below x How do you define a black person? Where would the reparations

Good News on Copyright Law: 9th Cir. Upholds Reverse Engineering

2000-02-13 Thread Nathan Newman
For all the horrors discussed on trademark law, the courts have generally upheld decent standards in the area of copyright, and this decision is a big one. It essentially defends using copyrighted software to create new emulation programs to run that software on different hardware. This is key

BLS Daily Report

2000-02-13 Thread Richardson_D
BLS DAILY REPORT, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2000 The productivity of U.S. private nonfarm workers grew at a 5 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 1999, contributing to the largest annual increase in seven years, according to preliminary data released by BLS. Gains in fourth-quarter

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Doug Henwood
Louis Proyect wrote: Capitalism does have something to do with lower infant mortality and longer lifespans. It improved them in Belgium while degrading them in the Belgian Congo. People in almost all regions of the world are living longer now than they did 20, 50, or 100 years ago. To say that

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Hoover
The 40 acres and a mule promise comes from the Freedman's Bureau (1865-1872), along with civil war pensions, one of the few 19th century federal social welfare measures. The Bureau was underfunded and hobbled by opposition at every turn, but it did exist, and it did make these promises.

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Doug Henwood
Louis Proyect wrote: If Doug has figures for the Yoruba or Asante dynasties, I'd love to see them. You're the Africa expert. Do tell. Doug

Rational Markets

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Speculating on a Cure of Cander: A Non-Event that Made Stock Prices Soar. |KW| FINANCIAL MARKET;PRICES |AU| Huberman, G.;Regev, T. |AD| U.S.A.; COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, First Boston series, New York, NY 10027 U.S.A. 38p. |DP| 1999 |ID| A1.116 WP 99-6 |AB| A

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 2/11/00 4:20:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Defining a Black person would be something like whether they have held themselves out as Black or been officially considered Black in the various places where race has been required to be chosen on forms

Reform Party

2000-02-13 Thread Rod Hay
The Reform Party of the US has just split. They must be taking lessons from old Trotskyists. -- Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archive http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://home.golden.net/~rodhay 52 Eby Street South Kitchener,

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 2/11/00 5:47:01 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: No, it is not within the Marxian tradition to say that "capitalism has brought with it certain social benefits." This is instead a typical bromide of the Second International of the late 19th century.

Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy

2000-02-13 Thread Timework Web
Jim Devine asked, 2) Tom W., could you give a 25-word-or-less summary of the "lump of labor fallacy" and a "25-word-or-less" summary of _why_ it's a fallacy. Maybe I'm dumb, but I can't seem to get my mind around what the target of the main stream of your missives is. Maybe you give an Econ.

Re: Reform Party

2000-02-13 Thread Carrol Cox
Rod Hay wrote: The Reform Party of the US has just split. They must be taking lessons from old Trotskyists. A novelist back in the '50s who adhered to some Calvinist sect inserted in one of his novels the wisecrack, rotten wood never splits. Carrol Sorry I can't identify novelist or

Peru Election

2000-02-13 Thread Rod Hay
WIRE:02/11/2000 21:31:00 ET Peru Election Is Undemocratic -Carter Center LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - A pro-democracy foundation headed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Justin, we don't provoke like this on pen-l. [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Typical 2d International Kautskyite rubbish. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]

public health (was: reparations)

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Roger O writes: Public health spending does not come out of surplus value, or the surplus product, as you put it. It, like education costs, e.g., are part of labor's social subsistence. According to Marx: subsistence is that bundle of goods and services necessary to "produce, develop,

Re: Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 2/11/00 11:29:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Typical 2d International Kautskyite rubbish. Comrade, this is irony, not provocation. The quote is from the Manifesto, so Marx not Kautsky--a thinker whom I hold in high

Re: Re: Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Sorry, it was Jim _Blaut_ (author of "The colonizer's model of the world ") that I was referring to. At 02:53 PM 2/11/00 -0500, you wrote: That settles my Marxist conscience, which insists that capitalism produces a surplus-product (unlike, say, Jim Blau (sp?), who seemed to being saying

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Carrol Cox
Sam Pawlett wrote: People who are not part of the working class draw health benefits too-people on welfare receive full health care and partial dental care. People on welfare are certainly part of the working class. Carrol

reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
People in almost all regions of the world are living longer now than they did 20, 50, or 100 years ago. To say that isn't to say imperialism isn't horrible. But it is entirely within the Marxian tradition to say that capitalism has brought with it certain social benefits. Doug No, it is not

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Patrick Bond
From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] ... if this is the same Robinson who was interviewed on US National Public Radio the other day, he's not calling for reparations in the form of checks to those who were superexploited or their descendants. He was talking about aid in the form

Africa

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
You're the Africa expert. Do tell. Doug Basil Davidson, "Africa in History": But the kingdoms and empires were not, of course, the whole of the picture of political development in these centuries; they were not even, in some respects, the most familiar or interesting part of it. It may be

reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
Typical 2d International Kautskyite rubbish. Louis should stick to his genuinely charming reminiscences about his Trotskyist youth. --jks It is understandable that Justin would embrace the "stagist" orthodoxies of a Marxism wrenched out of context. This, after all, is the lynchpin of the

neoliberalism (was: The Bill of Gates fallacy)

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Now I am a card-carrying neoliberal: a believer that a bet on increased international economic integration is our best hope for rapidly moving to a truly human world, an advocate of NAFTA and GATT, a former not-very-senior official in the Bentsen and Rubin Treasury Departments, and a

Re: public health (was: reparations)

2000-02-13 Thread Roger Odisio
Jim Devine wrote: Roger O writes: Public health spending does not come out of surplus value, or the surplus product, as you put it. It, like education costs, e.g., is part of labor's social subsistence. According to Marx: subsistence is that bundle of goods and services necessary to

Re: Gramsci again on the state

2000-02-13 Thread Chris Burford
At 20:28 10/02/00 -0500, Louis wrote: Chris: I discussed more fully on marxism-thaxis Gramsci's view of the state, which I had raised here at the beginning of the year but did not pursue on this list. The discussion on the executive of the bourgeoisie however makes it relevant to return to the

Re: Theu US and Miami exiles: was The Bill of Gates fallacy

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
At 12:52 PM 2/11/00 -1000, you wrote: On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, Jim Devine wrote: Of course, the US (and especially the anti-Castro Cubans of Miami) wants to bring back the "good old days" of the 1950s, with the anti-Castro Cubans replacing Batista and the mafia. Jim Devine [EMAIL

Re: Re: Theu US and Miami exiles: was The Bill of Gates fallacy

2000-02-13 Thread Stephen E Philion
On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, Jim Devine wrote: At 12:52 PM 2/11/00 -1000, you wrote: On Fri, 11 Feb 2000, Jim Devine wrote: Of course, the US (and especially the anti-Castro Cubans of Miami) wants to bring back the "good old days" of the 1950s, with the anti-Castro Cubans replacing

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread William S. Lear
On Friday, February 11, 2000 at 22:04:32 (-0800) Sam Pawlett writes: Doug Henwood wrote: But it is entirely within the Marxian tradition to say that capitalism has brought with it certain social benefits. A certain tradition within Marxism. Its not capitalism that brought the benefits but

FW: February 10 2000 edition: CANADA'S ECONOMY IN THE NEWSPAPERS

2000-02-13 Thread Robert MacDiarmid
For any Canadians out there, or anyone with an interest in the Canadian economy, this is a pretty useful new service. -Original Message- From: Brian MacLean [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: February 10, 2000 3:47 PM To: Brian MacLean Subject: February 10 2000 edition: CANADA'S ECONOMY

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 00-02-12 07:27:37 EST, you write: It is understandable that Justin would embrace the "stagist" orthodoxies of a Marxism wrenched out of context. This, after all, is the lynchpin of the Analytical Marxism school How any could get this out my my quoting Marx's encominium

reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
Bill Lear: uttered by Marx himself. Second, this rather pathetic belief that Capitalism is Evil, and not a highly complex intertwined mix of variegated Good and Bad. This is not what the argument is about at all. Moralistic terms do not apply whatsoever. The more appropriate term would be

Re: Re: Re: Re: The Bill of Gates fallacy

2000-02-13 Thread Lisa Ian Murray
Brad wrote: Now I am a card-carrying neoliberal: a believer that a bet on increased international economic integration is our best hope for rapidly moving to a truly human world, an advocate of NAFTA and GATT, a former not-very-senior official in the Bentsen and Rubin Treasury Departments, and a

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
I have defended "a kind of directionality in history towards emancipation, a long run tendancy towards a state of affairs without domination," based howver, on a class struggle account rather than on a Cohenist technologogical determinist account. I have said the thesis about a tendenct

Tulsa reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
From The Philadelphia Inquirer February 5, 2000 TULSA RACE RIOT PANEL RECOMMENDS REPARATIONS White mob killed as many as 300 people, mostly blacks; Oklahoma commission calls for payments to survivors by Renee Ruble - Associated Press TULSA, Okla. - A state commission recommended yesterday

Re: Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Carrol Cox
"William S. Lear" wrote: Second, this rather pathetic belief that Capitalism is Evil, and not a highly complex intertwined mix of variegated Good and Bad. The first point judges the second. The view that capitalism is a mixture of Good and Bad is as pathetic, and for the same reasons (its

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Roger Odisio
Sam Pawlett wrote: A certain tradition within Marxism. Its not capitalism that brought the benefits but people struggling for public health, social security etc. For example, the public health system (now being dismantled) in Canada has brought great social benefit. It was instituted within

capitalist progress

2000-02-13 Thread Rod Hay
Michael's question is at least interesting, and open to debate. To claim that capitalism has no progressive features, is simply the idle fantasy of a mind that imagined itself to be encased in the body of a "revolutionary". If that was the case the left would have a much less difficult time

shirtless helots neo-asceticism

2000-02-13 Thread Doug Henwood
Louis Proyect wrote: I wonder which Marxist thinkers of the 20th century Doug has in mind when he refers to this "ambivalent" attitude. G.A. Cohen? Frank Furedi? John Roemer? Ernest Mandel, for one, who wrote the passage appended below. I'm also curious what you make of these comments by your

shirtless helots neo-asceticism

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
Doug: Ernest Mandel, for one, who wrote the passage appended below. I'm also curious what you make of these comments by your "muses." Mariategui, writing scornfully of those who "dreamed of nobly leading a revolution of the shirtless helots," added: I am not sure what this business about

Re: Re: public health (was: reparations)

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Roger wrote: Public health spending does not come out of surplus value, or the surplus product, as you put it. It, like education costs, e.g., is part of labor's social subsistence. According to Marx: subsistence is that bundle of goods and services necessary to "produce, develop,

Kism's good/bad results (was: reparations)

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Bill Lear writes: [the] Manichean view that only "anti-capitalist elements ... within capitalism ... bring about social benefits" simply does not square with the facts. I happen to think slavery is a bad idea, but slavery was not destroyed in this society by "anti-capitalist elements". The

Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
Such assertions however are unprovable, just as insertion that capitalism is acting as the engine of human progress. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Well, human progress is occurring. It is occurring while we have a capitalist economic

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Lou, I have already reprimanded Justin for taunting you. Pleasing to respond in-kind. Louis Proyect wrote: Typical 2d International Kautskyite rubbish. Louis should stick to his genuinely charming reminiscences about his Trotskyist youth. --jks It is understandable that Justin

Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
I was trying to suggest that capitalist progress might be negative sum game. The pyramids might be considered to be a monument of human progress, but they might not be worth is much is the value of the Jewish labor (if the Jews to build them as slaves) there was expended in producing them.

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Doug Henwood
Sam Pawlett wrote: A certain tradition within Marxism. Its not capitalism that brought the benefits but people struggling for public health, social security etc. But capitalism made possible the wealth and scientific knowledge that people struggled over, and the partial socialization of

Frank/Landes transcript available

2000-02-13 Thread jeffrey sommers
This is to announce that a full transcript of the December 2, 1998, debate between Andre Gunder Frank and David Landes is now available on the World History Center website. The debate, centering on their two 1998 books and on their differing interpretations of modern world economic history, took

Protest IMF April 16 - 17, D.C.

2000-02-13 Thread peoples
MOBILIZATION FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE Thousands will March in Washington April 16-17! Organizational Endorsements and Support Needed Now We need your support for the continuing struggle for economic justice. Endorse the Mobilization for Global Justice and join us in our protest against IMF and World

Re: shirtless helots neo-asceticism

2000-02-13 Thread Yoshie Furuhashi
Lou Doug: Marx himself deliberately pointed out the need to work out a system of needs, which has nothing to do with the neo-asceticism peddled in some circles as Marxist orthodoxy. Ascetism? How dare you! I am broiling a sirloin steak for dinner, courtesy of a Vinegar Factory gift certificate

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Rod Hay
I haven't seen your book Michael. But on the negative side, capitalism certainly steers scientific development in directions which have proven to be harmful. It has also impeded development of science that could be beneficial. I don't doubt that it is a double edged sword. I think that on balance

Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 00-02-12 21:52:16 EST, you write: How much "progress" occurs because of science? Do we attribute science to capitalism or can we consider the scientific process to be "non-capitalist?" Good and hard questions. I think that you would have to distinguish between

Re: Re: shirtless helots neo-asceticism

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 00-02-13 00:28:27 EST, you write: What matters for Kant is Law, not pleasures; and if the happiness (= pleasures) of the people come into contradiction with Law, it is Law that takes precedence. What philosophy can be more ascetic - and more anti-revolutionary - than

Dialectics, Not Ambivalence (was reparations)

2000-02-13 Thread Yoshie Furuhashi
Michael Yates wrote to Doug: Do you think that to say,as Marx did, that capitalism gives us " a presentiment that such productive forces slumber[...] in the breast of social labor" that he is being ambivalent about capitalism? I don't think this is the right word. Saying that capitalism helps to

Re: shirtless helots neo-asceticism

2000-02-13 Thread Yoshie Furuhashi
Justin: No one would mistake Kant for a hedonist. In his essay on "occupation," he says that "the pleasures of life do not fill our time but leave it empty" and he recommends activity as opposed to mere enjoyment. However, he is a fan of happiness. "Without occupation a man cannot live happily."

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalistprogress.

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
Lysenko was hardly "science" any more than the reserach by the Tobacco Institute or Hernnstein Murray is science. Exactly my point...

Ernest Mandel's real views

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
Ernest Mandel, "Marxist Economic Theory, Volume 2": Born in Western Europe, industrial capitalism spread in the course of a century over the entire world. But this expansion assumed a very special form: all the countries in the world became outlets, sources of raw material and, to a smaller

Re: Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread William S. Lear
On Saturday, February 12, 2000 at 11:04:31 (-0600) Carrol Cox writes: "William S. Lear" wrote: Second, this rather pathetic belief that Capitalism is Evil, and not a highly complex intertwined mix of variegated Good and Bad. The first point judges the second. The view that capitalism is a

non-capitalist development (was: Reparations and capitalist progress)

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Well, human progress is occurring. It is occurring while we have a capitalist economic system. And no one today thinks the... non-capitalist economic systems we saw during the twentieth century were faster roads for human progress. I'm sure there's _someone_ who thinks that the bureaucratic

Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Brad De Long wrote: Well, human progress is occurring. It is occurring while we have a capitalist economic system. You can see it happening in Cuba also. How much "progress" occurs because of science? Do we attribute science to capitalism or can we consider the scientific process to be

non-capitalist development

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
I probably didn't mention here, but I am working on one of the most interesting projects of my life, which is to develop an anthology based on the magazine American Socialist, which was co-edited by Harry Braverman and Bert Cochran. The magazine only lasted from 1954 to 1959 but without

Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
How much "progress" occurs because of science? Do we attribute science to capitalism or can we consider the scientific process to be "non-capitalist?" Good and hard questions. I think that you would have to distinguish between "science", "research", and "development" in order to answer them.

reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Sam Pawlett
Doug Henwood wrote: But capitalism made possible the wealth and scientific knowledge that people struggled over, and the partial socialization of production that made socialism possible. This ambivalent attitude towards capitalism seems to me one of the distinctive features of Marxism -

reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Sam Pawlett
"William S. Lear" wrote: Second, this rather pathetic belief that Capitalism is Evil, and not a highly complex intertwined mix of variegated Good and Bad. What is pathetic about believing capitalism is evil if you can demonstrate it? It seems that we have different experiences and a

Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Rob Schaap
Some idle speculations, if I may ... I reckon we'd have to say science is capitalist science if it's done within capitalist relations. Even publicly-funded science has been taking on a more applied flavour over the last decade here. And the applications are chosen with market appeal in mind.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Brad De Long wrote: I think that you would have to distinguish between "science", "research", and "development" in order to answer them. And think hard about the fact that it was not in producing the heavy industrial goods of the second industrial revolution but in developing and producing

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Yates
Sam, I think that the working class does engage in creative activity. some of it is of a negative kind, as when workers creatively figure out how to shirk, sabotage production, get the boss in trouble, etc. Some of it is personal as when workers develop hobbies and crafts outside of work, some

Re: reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Yates
Do you think that to say,as Marx did, that capitalism gives us " a presentiment that such productive forces slumber[...] in the breast of social labor" that he is being ambivalent about capitalism? I don't think this is the right word. Saying that capitalism helps to show us the way to abundant

Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Rod Hay
The incentives provided by capitalism certainly lead to an acceleration of scientific development. Capitalism also provided a surplus which could finance time away from more mundane economic activities. The advent of mass education expanded the talent pool from which scientists could be drawn.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Rod, in my Class Warfare book I discussed how capitalism impedes scientific development. Rod Hay wrote: The incentives provided by capitalism certainly lead to an acceleration of scientific development. Capitalism also provided a surplus which could finance time away from more mundane

Kofi Annan on the global state

2000-02-13 Thread Chris Burford
"Can we not attempt on a global level what any successful industrialised country does to help its most disadvantaged or undeveloped regions to catch up." Saturday, 12 February, 2000, 13:23 GMT Annan calls for global deal United Nations

Re: non-capitalist development

2000-02-13 Thread Doug Henwood
Louis Proyect wrote: Essentially, this is the same kind of argument being made by defenders of capitalism in this discussion. They say that things are getting better in the third world. Look at life expectancy figures. They are better than they were 100 years ago. Isn't that progress? Why

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalistprogress.

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
Or that the USSR developed rapidly, was then wiped out during WWII, rebuilt again. Nah. Not consistent with the post-WWII relative growth of Germany and the USSR, or West and East Germany, or Japan and the USSR. Can't call the USSR's post-WWII recovery "fast" by comparison with the recovery

non-capitalist development

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
Doug: Louis Proyect wrote: Essentially, this is the same kind of argument being made by defenders of capitalism in this discussion. They say that things are getting better in the third world. Look at life expectancy figures. They are better than they were 100 years ago. Isn't that progress? Why

Condoms and Capitalism

2000-02-13 Thread kate.hinchcliff

capitalist versus socialist progress

2000-02-13 Thread Louis Proyect
Brad: Nah. Not consistent with the post-WWII relative growth of Germany and the USSR, or West and East Germany, or Japan and the USSR. Can't call the USSR's post-WWII recovery "fast" by comparison with the recovery of the defeated axis powers... Martin Hart-Landsberg, "Korea: Divison,

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Doug Henwood
Brad De Long wrote: Nah. Not consistent with the post-WWII relative growth of Germany and the USSR, or West and East Germany, or Japan and the USSR. Can't call the USSR's post-WWII recovery "fast" by comparison with the recovery of the defeated axis powers... According to Maddison's stats,

The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 11 Feb 2000 -- 4:13 (#388)

2000-02-13 Thread Paul Kneisel
SPECIAL NOTE ON MAILING: This is the last issue that is sent out under the old mailing system. There are always a few problems when shifting to new modes. Please let us know if you suddenly stop receiving the newsletter. It means your name was accidentally dropped and

Sharecropping returns!

2000-02-13 Thread Eugene Coyle
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Commodities giant Cargill Inc, the largest privately held company in the United States, and John Deere Credit said they will offer a new program this year to finance farmer expenses and cash flow. The program, called Performance Finance, will offer straight loans and a

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations andcapitalist pr...

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
I am surprised that YOU are surprised by the former USSR's failure in the environmentr, etc. Perhaps this comes from having an economist's perception of the world. My social science training was in political science, so it seems quite natural to me. The USSR did badly in the environmental area

Re: non-capitalist development

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Lou and Doug, Please be careful. Thanks. Louis Proyect wrote: Doug: Louis Proyect wrote: Essentially, this is the same kind of argument being made by defenders of capitalism in this discussion. They say that things are getting better in the third world. Look at life expectancy figures.

Re: Re:Reparations

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
The externalities in Eastern Europe reflected, in part, a lack of democracy, and also a need to industrialize fast to protect communism from NATO. Both elements are important. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL

Fwd: Productivity Growth

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
for what it's worth, the following was published in today's L.A.TIMES. Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 07:36:51 -0800 To: "Editors, Los Angeles TIMES" [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Productivity Growth Your front-page article ("U.S. Productivity Growth in '99 is

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
At 07:35 AM 02/13/2000 -0800, you wrote: Or that the USSR developed rapidly, was then wiped out during WWII, rebuilt again. Nah. Not consistent with the post-WWII relative growth of Germany and the USSR, or West and East Germany, or Japan and the USSR. Can't call the USSR's post-WWII recovery

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations and capitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Brad writes: It is odd, and I do not understand, just why it was that really-existing-socialism was so *lousy* at those parts of economic activity where externalities are rampant and decentralized atomistic decision making works worst. In technological development and in pollution control all

RE: capitalist versus socialist progress

2000-02-13 Thread Nathan Newman
On Behalf Of Louis Proyect These achievements were so remarkable that even Western economists began to speak of the "North Korean Miracle." In fact, according to the economist Joan Robinson, writing in 1965, "All economic miracles of the postwar world are put in the shade by these

government failure

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
Brad wrote: Makes me think we need much better theories of government failure than we have... I didn't say it clearly enough in my previous response to this statement, but this sentence embodies an inadequate problematic for dealing with this issue. Originally, orthodox economists of the

Re: Reparations andcapitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Nathan Newman
On Behalf Of Brad De Long It is odd, and I do not understand, just why it was that really-existing-socialism was so *lousy* at those parts of economic activity where externalities are rampant and decentralized atomistic decision making works worst. In technological development and in

Re: government failure

2000-02-13 Thread JKSCHW
In a message dated 00-02-13 14:45:30 EST, you write: What orthodox economists may see as "failure" is success to the capitalists or the Stalinist bureaucrats. However, we should keep in mind what "success" is from the point of the working classes. Well, I doubt whether either

Re: Re: government failure

2000-02-13 Thread Jim Devine
At 03:16 PM 02/13/2000 -0500, you wrote: In a message dated 00-02-13 14:45:30 EST, you write: What orthodox economists may see as "failure" is success to the capitalists or the Stalinist bureaucrats. However, we should keep in mind what "success" is from the point of the working classes.

Re: RE: capitalist versus socialist progress

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Nathan, Bettleheim, some time ago, made the point that the urgency of war caused Lenin to establish systems of control much like those of the capitalists. I don't want to get into a Lenin vs. Trotsky, etc. line, but I think it is important to remember the context. Nathan Newman wrote: On

RE: Re: RE: capitalist versus socialist progress

2000-02-13 Thread Nathan Newman
On Behalf Of Michael Perelman Nathan, Bettleheim, some time ago, made the point that the urgency of war caused Lenin to establish systems of control much like those of the capitalists. I don't want to get into a Lenin vs. Trotsky, etc. line, but I think it is important to remember the

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations andcapitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
I haven't seen your book Michael. But on the negative side, capitalism certainly steers scientific development in directions which have proven to be harmful. It has also impeded development of science that could be beneficial. I don't doubt that it is a double edged sword. I think that on

Kant Redux (was shirtless helots neo-asceticism)

2000-02-13 Thread Yoshie Furuhashi
Justin: Kanr is saying in the "Common Saying" essay that because virturous action is caused by something noumenal, thewrefore unknowable, we cannot know for sure that ever act rightly from the right reasons. But it is (Kant thinks) a matter of logic that if we act only from our desire for

Shameless self-promotion, at last

2000-02-13 Thread Eugene Coyle
I have recently finished a paper titled "Price Discrimination, Electronic Redlining, and Price Fixing in de-regulated electric power." I feel shameless not only for calling attention to the paper but because I have more than once announced -- long ago -- that it was imminent. Done for

Kant Hobbes on Women (was shirtless helots neo-asceticism)

2000-02-13 Thread Yoshie Furuhashi
Justin wrote: That woulld mean, for K, that they would be incapable of free and moral action, that is, they would not be human. I don't think he thought that. And if he did--the passages you quote can be understood as diescriptions of the state of the law at the time rather than advocacy of the

Re: Re: Re: public health (was: reparations)

2000-02-13 Thread Roger Odisio
Jim Devine wrote: Roger wrote: Public health spending does not come out of surplus value, or the surplus product, as you put it. It, like education costs, e.g., is part of labor's social subsistence. According to Marx: subsistence is that bundle of goods and services

Marx on trademarks

2000-02-13 Thread Michael Perelman
Rob mentioned the Austrialian article on trademarks, but he left out what I thought was the best part: In 1942, the Marx Brothers were planning to make a movie called A Night In Casablanca. Warner Bros blocked the move, saying that it owned the rights to the name. Groucho Marx retorted

Re: Re: non-capitalist development

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
Essentially, this is the same kind of argument being made by defenders of capitalism in this discussion. They say that things are getting better in the third world. Look at life expectancy figures. They are better than they were 100 years ago. Isn't that progress? Why disrupt this march forward

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Reparations andcapitalist progress.

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
Brad De Long wrote: Nah. Not consistent with the post-WWII relative growth of Germany and the USSR, or West and East Germany, or Japan and the USSR. Can't call the USSR's post-WWII recovery "fast" by comparison with the recovery of the defeated axis powers... According to Maddison's stats, the

Re: RE: capitalist versus socialist progress

2000-02-13 Thread Brad De Long
On Behalf Of Louis Proyect These achievements were so remarkable that even Western economists began to speak of the "North Korean Miracle." In fact, according to the economist Joan Robinson, writing in 1965, "All economic miracles of the postwar world are put in the shade by these

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