On 9/12/06, raghu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Is this the full story? Forget about "relative poverty". Historically the rise of capitalism has coincided with a massive increase in *absolute poverty*. By absolute poverty I mean being deprived of the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter or the means of acquiring those. Africa never had cars and electricity, but people there were not starving to death in the millions until after capitalism arrived. Does Marxist theory explain this adequately?
If Marx's theory of primitive accumulation is applied, it's a pretty good explanation. In Marx's discussion of PA in CAPITAL, the landlords expropriated the property of the British peasants, so many did extremely poorly. Some starved, because they no longer had direct access to food (a crucial "means of subsistence"). Applied to conquered areas during the age of European colonialism, the agricultural producers had an even worse time, because they had less ability to fight back. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
