Folks:
Over the last few days, energized by paricipation in the Intercontinental
Encuentro, I have given in to the temptation to debate some
pro-capitalist ideologues over the nature of the economy and of
economics. I usually resist getting involved in such debates because they
are often enormously time consuming. However, in as much as there are still
progressive people out there who think we only need to build a "better",
i.e., more just, more equal, economy (perhaps a socialist economy), I
think it is worth taking the time to spell out why we not only need to
get beyond capitalism but also need to get beyond the "economic"
organization of life in general.
Basically my arguments run through Marx and Polanyi to my
own brand of "autonomist Marxism" and maintain that "the economy" is a
modern invention and is made up of the capitalist organization of life
around work. Economics, therefore, has been constructed for managing and
apologizing for this organization. So when we think of going beyond
capitalism we need to think in terms of both reorganizing the activities
that make up what we call economic life into quite different kinds of
relationships and reconceptualizing their meaning in different ways as well.
The debate, as it has developed on the list Mexico2000, is much too long
to burden other lists with but I have gathered the contributions together
and made them accessible through the Chiapas95 home page (whose url is
given below. (The original postings can be found, in principle, in the
archives of the Mexico2000 list.) The subjects touched on are primarily:
monetary aggregation, measurement, the economy, community, economics,
utility, market value, money, interest rates, regulation, wages, profits,
the Marxist theory of value, mirrors and red-baiting.
Any feedback would, of course, be appreciated.
Harry
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Harry Cleaver
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1173 USA
Phone Numbers: (hm) (512) 442-5036
(off) (512) 475-8535 Fax:(512) 471-3510
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cleaver homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu:80/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/index.html
Chiapas95 homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu:80/Homepages/Faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
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