Excellent stuff, Hans.
> In my view, a carbon tax is much better than cap and trade, > but the best policy would be carbon rationing as developed > in the UK. Some capitalist policies do actually work. For > instance feed-in tariffs are both effective and > cost-effective. These are the things we have to fight for. > > You want to leap from market fundamentalism directly to > socialized production. I think we should go from market > fundamentalism to a regulated capitalism. This is what the > mass movement will want to do. It is not obvious how > capitalism should be regulated, but there are lots of > examples out there, some successful and some not. Here we > have to do our homework and come with the right advice what > works. This way there will be a learning process until the > activists (and, it is hoped, the workers involved in this > struggle also) will know much better what do than the > capitalists. This is an important precondition for > expropriation of the capitalists. If we were able to take > power without this precondition we would have nobody to run > our electric utilities and transmission lines and refineries > etc., which coal-fired power plants to shut down first, what > to do to prevent the collapse of the grid, etc. We would > depend on the engineers running them now. Or the engineers > would smash the computers with axes and leave us with > inoperable hardware. > > By this time, when enough participants in the mass movement > have anough skills that they could possibly run production, > it will also become obvious whether capitalist regulation > works. You say it cannot work, I say we cannot know where > the limits are without trying it out. If it doesn't work > despite best practices within the capitalist system, this > will be the time when expropriation is on the agenda, this > is the time when everybody understands that expropriation is > necessary. > > It is hard to predict how things will evolve, but here is a > possible scenario. Some capitalists may try to sabotage the > switch to green energy, or perhaps they will shut down their > businesses because the rate of profits is too low. Their > businesses should be nationalized if they do. Others may go > bankrupt, and instead of bailing them out they should be > nationalized too. Or their government may be so discredited > that a Chavez-like reform government will come into power. > Or the mass movement itself will take power and Bill > McKibben will be our next president. Only one thing is > almost certain: the revolution will not be like the Russian > or Chinese revolutions. > > Hans > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] <javascript:;> > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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