Julio,
I don't think you read my post very carefully to respond in this way and
your response to Bill's objection suggests to me that you didn't read
his post carefully, or didn't understand it. Imperialism backed by
state coercive power, and after all, the origin of the state is to
protect private property. The use of the British/Canadian military to
defeat the Metis settlers at Batoche is hardly a definition of
'efficiency'. Nor was the sending in of land surveyors into Manitoba in
the late 1860s to survey for privatisation the metis lands leading,
eventually, to the state murder of the Metis leader, Louis Riel, an
example of capitalist efficiency but rather of capitalist brutality and
greed which is what Bill was suggesting but which you apparently
misunderstood.
But just to give a further illustration to make my point clearer:
After the prairie land was expropriated from the Indians and Metis and
the Indians were 'settled' on reserves, those in the agricultural area
began to farm and compete with 'white' farmers. What happened then? The
state refused the right of the Indians to use machinery so as to protect
the 'white' farmers. Where the Indians were out competing their European
neighbours, the state either expropriated their (collective)
agricultural land or prohibited the Indians from selling their hay crops
on the local market. So much for efficiency. In short, the victory of
the capitalist market system had precious little to do with efficiency
and a lot to do with military/police force in enforcing private
property rights over collective economic institutions.
Paul P
Julio Huato wrote:
Paul Phillips wrote:
The tragedy of the commons is, rather,
the tragedy of capitalist imperialism
upon the local social regulation that
makes the commons an efficient
community production resource.
But isn't an aspect of the overall "efficiency" (historical viability)
of a social structure its ability to withstand the pressure of
competing social structures? In the present circumstances, it cannot
be a strong argument in favor of communism to say that it works if and
only if there are no markets or capitalism around to erode it.
--
Paul Phillips Professor Emertus, Economics University of Manitoba Home
and Office: 3806 - 36A st., Vernon BC, Canada. ViT 6E9 tel: 1 (250)
558-0830 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
