>Louis, your comment re the welfare state is intriguing. Resisting
>caricature, what exactly is Keen's justification for claiming that to move
>beyond the welfare state would be disastrous?
>
>Michael K.
I'll let Steve speak for himself:
"Post Keynesian economics is thus not as eclectic as both its major
proponents and opponents believe; it has merely lacked a clearly
articulated theory of value, and an axiomatic basis derived from that
theory of value. Both of these exist in Marx, and can be adopted by Post
Keynesians without fear of contamination by the labor theory of value, and
without abandoning any of the valued aspects of Keynes's philosophical
approach to economics."
ftp://csf.colorado.edu/econ/authors/Keen.Steve/A_Marx_for_Post_Keynesians.txt
In other words, he is an advocate of welfare state capitalism, not
socialism. Like many other left economists who find capitalism a nasty
business, there is a tendency to embellish what is basically an
accomodationist approach with a dollop or two of Marxish thought or
terminology. Mostly, I find this sort of thing harmless unless the author
is claiming the mantle of Marx, which to Steve's credit he does not do. As
far as him wringing his hands over the terrible tragedy of Bolshevism, I
can't come up with anything since the archives for the old Marxism list
were flushed down the toilet after the Spoons Collective postmodernists
gave us the boot.
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
