Date: Sat, 29 Apr 1995 23:30:41 -0400 (EDT) From: Justin Schwartz <jschwart-AT-freenet.columbus.oh.us> Subject: Re: Crisis of capitalism? Howie wonders whether capitalism is in crisis. He doubts this because it looks as if it will be around for a while. But a final crisis is not the only sort. Marxist crisis theory is undeveloped and contentious, but wahtever your deep account of the mechanisms of crises, the empirical evidence is that capitalism has been in some sort of long term trouble--not fatal, but serious--since the early 1970s. I think most left economists would agree with the following: 1. The big jolt of the war effort brought capitalism out of the far more serious crisis of the Great Depression; 2. From 1945 to around 1970 capitalism underwent a golden age, partly spurred by Cold War military spending, in which rising profits were found compatible with relatively low unemploymenta nd increasing wages and benefits. 3. Around 1970, for reasons still debated--the recovery of the US's world competitors, the costs of the Vietnam war, the falling rate of profit, overproduction, profit squeeze, something, anyway--the golden age ended. The capitalist class resumed its normal attitude of war on the workers. Real wages have dropped almost every year since about 1973. Job security, benefits, have been reduced. Work hours have increased. Doug Henwood can give you the gory details. 4. There is no end in sight for this current crisis. 5. The current crisis does not itself threaten the economic reproducibility of capitalism, although it may in the long term put at risk its political governability. 6. At any rate capitalism will have be pushed politically by organized workers and will not fall automatically, or if it does, the result will not by anything we would like. --Justin --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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