>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.
Well put, Julien! TINA is ALWAYS politics as it is NEVER true. And whilst
politicians might hide behind TINA, we should remember that political
economy is principally about power. If the power is with those in whose
urgent interestsit is to waste, then we shall have waste. So would say an
institutionalist economist.
Marx was an institutionalist par excellence (Tsuru calls him that, for one),
and for him capitalism was the institution par excellence. So on this
reading it is not the grasping capitalist who has the power, but the
exchange relation that underpins capitalist society. Our fate is not
written by fat well manicured men in smoky rooms at all. It's not that
conscious and it's not that directed. It's unconscious and profoundly
directionless. Capitalism is the institution with the power, and the
captains of industry, much less the politicians of whom you speak are as
much its playthings as you and I.
Capitalism today NEEDS consumerism, NEEDS it to expand (both geographically
and through the commodification of the formerly ex-market transactions of
life), and therefore NEEDS to waste. If the bourgeoisie could get together
to act in its shared interest, this could be mitigated, but this is sadly
not immediately foreseeable. There is little to direct corporate capitalism
these days but the institutional shareholders who value their investments
purely on their short to medium term capacity to extract surplus value
compared to that of the alternatives. And it's hard to see much hope in
that until the consequent mergers attain their logical culmination - the
mega-monopolistic technopoly. And we don't have that kind of time, I'm
afraid.
Yeah, that all sounds very TINA, I know. But it ain't. Not really. We've
saved capitalism (and ourselves) from its own (directionless) prime
directive before, and perhaps we can pull that out of the hat one more time.
Or we could have done with it, of course. But I have to be very drunk
indeed to believe that's on the cards in the time we have.
Yours trying very hard to sound constructive and optimistic ... but not
quite managing it.
Cheers,
Rob.
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