brad wrote: > Louis Proyect asked: Why does the ruling class in the USA seem so > incapable of acting in its own class interests? > > Wait, Wait, Wait...first we need to confirm that they are not acting > in the own class interest. Record profits, further attacks on workers > and the welfare state. It looks like they are doing smashingly by > their own measure.
good point: their efforts to smash the working class have indeed gone smashingly. But that's only immediate results. Pushing down wages (and speeding up work) this way, for example, causes an underconsumption undertow that weakens profit realization and drags down accumulation. That meant the anemic US boom of the middle 2000s had to be sustained by a housing bubble and crazy credit extension. The next surge of accumulation might be based on something similar, but does that fit with the long-term collective interests of the capitalist class? we could also mention the effects of destroying the environment and the possibility of massive and widespread social disorder... -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
