Doug wrote: > In other words, the allocation of funds in the > present. A society as a whole can't save for the > future the way individuals can. Yes, we've > largely pissed away the proceeds of the borrowing, > and probably reduced future incomes as a result. > But that doesn't change the fact that the benefits > will have to be paid out of future incomes, not > today's savings.
Jim wrote: > exactly. Guys, We need to see beneath the veil of money. What people, as individuals, "save" today is *not* future wealth, but legal rights or (viewed from the other side) obligations contracted among one another over the disposition of future wealth. Future wealth is whatever wealth happens to be available in the future, and for the most part wealth has to be (re)produced. Needs at time t can *only* be satisfied by wealth (goods) extant at time t, regardless of how the legal claims over that wealth may be allocated before, then, or after. Revolutions are precisely the reset button with which societies alter the allocation of those rights or obligations. The *real* issue then is who -- which class or group of people -- is going to appropriate the wealth existing at t, i.e. whether none/some/all needs of working people will be met at t -- where t may be today (t=0) or some near or distant point in the future (t=k>0). So, there are two issues here. Issue one: At t=0, we should not let the true sources of wealth (the natural environment and us, human beings) be destroyed or left to decay. We have to preserve the ultimate and true sources of wealth, and that can only be done to the extent the needs of working people are met *today*. Issue two: Since t=k>0 will arrive, provided we humans are still around for that to matter, then we need to do *today* whatever possible to arrange things in such a way that when t=k>0 arrives, we are in a better position to make human life worth living, i.e. to have the true sources of wealth not only preserved but duly expanded and enriched. We need to reject this notion that under capitalism, what individuals "save" privately, has some existence independent of the aggregate reality of our material reproduction as a society. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
