Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 13:32:48 -0500
From: james m blaut <70671.2032-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: Re: M-I: Thorstein Veblen on the fur trade and American Indians


Mark:

We have to talk about population in a completely non-Malthusian way. His
theory posited that poor and nonwhite people are simply too stupid to
control their sexual urges and hence control population. If you judge that
there are too many people in the US today, a Malthusian approach would
demand that population be reduced.; a Marxist approach would explain the
imbalance between people and resources as a consequence of cAPITalism.
Stated differently: if the US cosumes 30% of the world's natural resources
(or whatever the figure may be) this is not going to be cured by population
control. Only by socialist revo.

You've eloquently made the case that the central crisis of capitalism today
is ecological. Don't water down the argument.

Jim B   


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