From: Jim Devine > [ I wish that socialization of production were always a good thing, but it's not. Look at Stalin's 5-year plans or Italy's corporatism during the 1930s. And rhetoric about soaking the rich has been used to help the rich. The quality of reforms depends much more on who's pushing them (and with what power) than on its rhetoric.
^^^ CB: So, when u said [this is suggesting a greater move toward socialization of production > (within capitalism), toward greater central planning.] what were u suggesting about the quality of Sachs' proposals ? And what about Marx and Engels' observation that socialization of production is a tendency of capitalism ? "Globalization" is increased socialization of production compared to "pre-globalization". In proposing increased socialization of production, Sachs is not proposing deviation from the historical tendency of capitalism. Marxists say the central contradiction of capitalism is between socialized production and privatized (centralized) _appropriation_. It's socialization of _appropriation_ , not production, that is "progressive" , good quality reform,no ? Sachs's proposals wouldn't socialize appropriation, would they ? - especially , since he's against "Keynesian" government spending. Rhetoric from Sachs about taxing the rich may be doubletalk, as you imply, but it's good to have it in the mass public discourse. The socialization of appropriation aspect of the Five Year Plan in Soviet Union was a good thing. Executing and imprisoning many,many, many was bad. Socializing appropriation was good. Reality can be quite contradictory. I doubt that Italian corporatism socialized appropriation. ^^^^^^^^ "The Historical Origins of the Big Mess" is good Would the following include the 1998 financial crises in East Asia , Brazil and Russia ? C. Increasing globalization of the economy, including finance. 1) This is seen today in the fact that the first major bank failure that resulted from the Big Mess was in Scotland, while Iceland, Ireland, Eastern Europe, and many other places are suffering to a large extent _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
