I use the following model to develop the core and derivative imperatives (teleological logic) of capitalism.
Capitalists MUST attempt to MAXIMIZE/REALIZE TOTAL PROFITS as a necessary but not sufficient condition (having retained earnings and/or "creditworthiness") of ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL (seen not only as accumulation of capital in the sense of capital as seen by bourgeois economics but also as expanded reproduction of the capital-labor relation as well as expanded reproduction of the requisite "soil"--institutions, values, myths, traditions etc--of capitalism) Capitalists MUST attempt continual ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL as a necessary but not sufficient condition of MAXIMIZATION OF PRODUCTIVITY (max $ value of output and minimization of total costs). Capitalists MUST attempt continual MAXIMIZATION OF PRODUCTIVITY as a necessary but not sufficient condition of EFFECTIVE COMPETITION (expanded market and asset shares--concentration and centralization--expanded market name and power; profitably increasing sales etc). Capitalists MUST attempt continual EFFECTIVE COMPETITION as a necessary but not sufficient condition of MAXIMIZATION/REALIZATION OF MAXIMUM POSSIBLE TOTAL PROFITS... These core imperatives give rise to derivative imperatives. For example, the core imperative to MAXIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY gives rise to derivative imperatives for union busting, racist/sexist divisions among workers, setting up dictatorships abroad and at home to enforce labor discipline and repression, socialization of costs/risks of capital accumulation while ensuring returns are increasingly privatized and centralized, removal of social safety nets to increase direct and opportunity costs of labor unemployment and relatively low productivity, outsourcing, vertical integration/disintegration, Taylorism and increasing monitoring/respression in workplace etc etc. The imperative for continual ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL gives rise to derivative imperatives for changes in tax codes favoring capital, changes in culture and education for indoctrinating masses that capitalism is the best and most eternal system, epochal changes in fundamental "social capital" of capitalism, legal changes in regulations being drafted by those who are supposed to be "regulated", increasing focus on cultures of narcissism and ultra-individualism, selective observance and recognition of international law and domestic law etc etc. The imperative for MAXIMIZATION/REALIZATION OF POSSIBLE TOTAL PROFITS gives rise to derivative imperatives to expand or push credit availability/use among the masses as well as the imperative to reduce "loopholes" in bankruptcy laws allowing workers to escape mounting and unconscionable debt and usurious interest rates, legal changes in treatment of accounts receivables etc etc. The imperative for EFFECTIVE COMPETITION gives rise to derivative imperatives for fraud, economic concentration/centralization, expanding foreign markets and effective infiltration/control of same, increasing influence of businesses in political institutions and elections, etc etc etc. Add here your own list of derivative imperatives flowing from core imperatives of capitalism. Jim C. James M. Craven Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo-i'poyi Professor/Consultant,Economics;Business Division Chair Clark College, 1800 E. McLoughlin Blvd. Vancouver, WA. USA 98663 Tel: (360) 992-2283; Fax: (360) 992-2863 "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." Josef Stalin <http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com/>http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com Employer has no association with private/protected opinion FREE LEONARD PELTIER!! -- www.marxmail.org
