Tony,
>Which part of this do you object to, Mark? I don't think that
>Marxists, or Marx, have had much to say about the 'throw-away society'.
>And neither do capitalist economists.
I'm no specialist of marxism, but I'd bet they do! As to capitalists they do too.
Just an example: Have you ever heard of those markets for buying and selling
rights to pollute? [he collapses in insane laughter, on his grave will be written
"those neo-libs really know how to drive people mad"]
Anyway, dealing with the issues you raise is not really in the field of
economics IMO. It's a political (and judicial) issue about what behaviours to
encourage, discourage, or ban. Sure, the technical arrangements are usually
administred by economists but only once they got orders from the politicians
(and judges).
>What have capitalist economists, Marx, or marxists had to say about this
>problem, or any of the many other similarly related problems of wastage?
Oh they do have stuff to say, don't worry. F.ex. there was a Mr. Walker who was
at some point on the list if I recall who had one economic prescription (and a
website dedicated to that): more leisure, less work. There's other examples.
Both marxist and "bourgeois" economics have explanations for what seems
like useless frenetic economic activity. AFAIK both sides relate that to
unwillingness to change the system: you produce just to keep it going. Like in
Japan now.
And since you are interested in the military, in case you didn't know, many
economists think of military expenses as waste. The japanese have bridges,
you have the Air Force.
>Yeah, but... what are the plans to
>do something about this, etc.?
As far as economics go, it's really easy to devise plans to diminish waste. The
problem is on the political side, Tony. Politicians love to hide behind
economic TINAs but don't believe them! Plain propaganda, I tell you.
Julien
_______________________________________________
Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base
To change your options or unsubscribe go to:
http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
