Tuesday 21 October 2008

Well Dug Old Mole?


"[Capitalism] "is not a success. It is not intelligent, it is not beautiful, it is not just, it is not virtuous — and it doesn't deliver the goods. In short, we dislike it, and we are beginning to despise it. But when we wonder what to put in its place, we are extremely perplexed."

A quote from Keynes, posted by Mick.

The Times- and therefore the blogosphere- are gnawing away at the old Marxist bone today. Stumbling even treats him like as proper economist but fairly points out that Capital itself didn't really deal too much with finance capital per se. That would be Hilferding's patch I seem to remember. Something about tending to create the conditions for war, and constantly seeking state help as I recall. Lenin nicked large parts of the theory to explain Imperialism.


So I'm not falling over backwards to resurrect ol' Karl. Saying that capitalism is unstable and unfair is not uniquely Marxist - as indeed Martin Jacques pointed out in the Times. Saying it can be replaced with a fairer system run by and for the majority of people is.

But right now we seem to have a gravedigger shortage. I blame the government's pathetic excuse for a skills strategy....

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