Tariq,
I don't like much politicians either. But I like technocrats even less. I'd never
leave legislation or implementation to professionals. The more direct the
democracy, the better.
Rob,
Try no to be too tough on the students, OK?
>Well, this obviously ain't the place to discuss the tendency of the rate of
>profit to fall.
OK. Let's sidestep this one. And the issue of the circulartity of using the TRPF
to make a law who says that capitalism has to grow.
>And you sorta
>admit there's some empirical evidence when you allow "I can hardly deny
>that it has a tendency to expand", don't you?
Yeah, there's evidence for a tendency. But there's no evidence I know of which
says it's a product of the system itself rather than a product of the prevailing
conditions.
>But the price for such resistance can be high (which is the nation
>state who would dare, for instance?). And the institutions we might have
>utilised for such resistance aren't there any more.
I don't get it. Nation states have dared to do wage wars, build nuclear
arsenals, etc. What would they not dare to do? (What an anthropomorphism!)
And what are the past institutions we lack?
>But the tide must not ebb - it must not
>be turned by the tender words of a Woolfenson or a Summers ...
Is that really a risk?
>... that I submit population growth is not our
>most immediate concern.
Of course, it's a long-term problem. It obviously affects us in the short-term but
we have more immerdiate concerns. But the longer-term effects are so
powerful that the quicker this concern is dealt with the better.
>It's all a matter of the energy/matter costs to the
>environment represented by the average human.
All? Then try to explain how Earth can sustainlably host 8 or 10 billions of us?
Not for 25 or 100 years but for a long time.
>population growth trends (that Trayner essay Mark put on the site is a scary
>read).
which essay?
>But to single out population is effectively to blame those
>populations who are growing. And we all know who they are. Always 'the
>other', eh? Always the victim is at fault ...
Well, well... IF you think in terms of national populations or ethnic populations. I
blame ALL those people who have kids (now I've angried 99% of the list :-).
The ones with the most kinds and the richest (because they waste more while
they don't need familial solidarity as badly as the poors) get most of the blame
as far as I'm concerned. So this is NOT necessairly a way of blaming people
of different colours, ya see?
>And proper
>population control requires a public guarantee of a comfortable old age for
>all who do not have seven children so that two sons might survive to feed
>them in their dotage. That means socialism or a feminism so radical that
>daughters might have equal capacity to finance the old dears. Here, too, I
>speak effectively of social revolution. 'As radical as truth itself,'
>someone once said ...
I wouldn't mind abolishing subsidies for families, or even a chinese-style
population control. I wouldn't even oppose "post-birth abortion", or
widespread euthanasia for that matter. See how much a "misanthrope" I am?
As to caring for the elderly, I don't mind radicalism, but why must this guarantee
rely on socialism? And I don't get the point on feminism. I wouldn't call the
prevailing feminism in our western societies radical and yet daughters do also
finance the elderly. BTW, Tony has a neat solution for this problem. He wants
to stop antibiotics use. :-)
>Well, your Euro and my dollar are in the cross-currency toilet right now -
>and I am given to believe this is because return to capital is bubbling
>along at 21% in the US at the moment, whilst yours and ours sputters along
>at 12 or 13% (which were damned fine numbers once upon a time).
First, it ain't our Euro, hopefully.
You got the source for these stats or know how they were constructed by
chance? I doubt very much that these reflect actual surplus value!
And the big currency conversions are not made by shareholders. It's more
M&A, money markets, currency speculation, etc. isn't it? Plus, the markets still
react to official GDP, unemployment, and productivity numbers aparently. And
these are fishy to an extent unseen for quite some time.
>The US
>economy is sucking the worlds value out of it like a monstrous black hole -
>a virtuous cycle there is by definition a vicious cycle for everyone else
>(lower currency -> inflation fears -> higher interest rates -> lower returns
>to capital -> lower currency -> inflation fears -> e.t.bloody.c ...).
Why by defintion? It would be as you say if the non-US economies were
already running at full capacity before US demand. They weren't and still
aren't as far as I can see. The US demand provides dollars to countries
hungry for hard currency and diminishes unemployment worldwide.
Remember we're not far from the deflationary hole. Look at raw material
prices. Many of them have risen year to date but the problem is hardly behind
us. How are you so certain that all this does not offset the negative effects?
Plus the effects of capital flows you talk about are mainly a concern for other
industrial countries. Yet the industrialists in these countries seem to be happy
with weaker currencies. Don't forget that higher nominal rates on a weakening
currency usually mean lower real rates. And, anyway, there is a bottom to such
a process. Look at Japan! The dollar is not worth 250 yens yet. Capital flows
can only move a currency that much. Maybe you should read Krugman on this.
>Well, the Warner merger is an absolute whopper, conferring potential
>monopoly power across a great slice of foreseeable media applications.
>'No worries' say the regulators.
Maybe they recognize that the media corps were all behaving like a giant
cartel to begin with. And feared the disruption of the spectacle by competition
like between that cable company and Disney earlier this year. :-)
Seriously, this merger is not Kautsky-esque stuff yet. And the regulators
actually forced them to sell and/or spinoff stuff, if I remember well.
>Hope all's well, mate (well, except for imminent global dissolution,
>anyway),
The cold wave is hitting. I liked that "global-warmed" september. But I'm not
high on codein yet.
Julien
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