tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post7611062622469148793..comments2024-02-07T19:30:21.880+11:00Comments on Left Focus: World Financial Crisis - Where to from here?Vaughann722http://www.blogger.com/profile/11604027151490275320noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-16027238500580691412009-02-20T11:14:00.000+11:002009-02-20T11:14:00.000+11:00Anyone who hasn't read Immanuel Wallerstein' artic...Anyone who hasn't read Immanuel Wallerstein' article in relation to the crisis should do so... I'm probably a bit more optimistic re: left social democracy's capability to limit the human damage...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-42789943647780057992009-02-19T13:33:00.000+11:002009-02-19T13:33:00.000+11:00The Aust. Fin. Review at several places today seem...The Aust. Fin. Review at several places today seems to suggest that the worst is yet to come eg "The real deterioration has only just started" [p25]Redgumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00566889742015150914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-15340032319329525362009-02-18T10:48:00.000+11:002009-02-18T10:48:00.000+11:00While I obviously agree generally with both Trista...While I obviously agree generally with both Tristan and John I am not sure that "profit rates have fallen".<BR/><BR/>The Fair Pay Commission's latest Monitoring Report shows that the shares of GDP between<BR/>"Gross operating Surplus" and "Wages Salaries and supplements" has boosted GOS and cut WSS.<BR/><BR/>There are other data in the Monitoring report that shows high levels of profits (with some declines within normal volatility).<BR/><BR/>The point is that Australian capitalism has moved its exploitation of workers into offshore Third world countries and capitalism as a whole has availled itslef of "countervailing tendencies" which are now wearing thin (eg per capita credit expansion, population increase, real wages cuts).<BR/><BR/>From now on, however, profits definitely will be declining, dividends will evapourate, and all the rest.<BR/><BR/>I think the real Marxist "decline in profits" is yet to come.Redgumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00566889742015150914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-20123777747134585682009-02-16T13:30:00.000+11:002009-02-16T13:30:00.000+11:00Dear John,Thanks for the contribution. I tried au...Dear John,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the contribution. I tried authorising you to post entries on the main page... If you want to write a Marxist critique of the crisis - and more broadly of capitalism in general - you'd be welcome to post it here<BR/><BR/>sincerely,<BR/><BR/>TristanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6920488656220463337.post-13387625444397677602009-02-15T23:22:00.000+11:002009-02-15T23:22:00.000+11:00TristanAn interesting argument. There is much I a...Tristan<BR/><BR/>An interesting argument. There is much I agree with, and some that I disagree with. Some minor perhaps picky points first, and then maybe tomorrow some more thought out responses. Maybe.<BR/><BR/>You say:<BR/><BR/>'The rate of profit<BR/><BR/>'A most important tendency of capitalism is that of the rate of profit to fall. As technology improves the productivity of labour, the “constant” component of capital rises in relation to its “variable” component.<BR/><BR/>'Put otherwise, there is a rising “organic composition” of capital, comprising “the value of the materials and fixed costs”. <BR/><BR/>'This stands in contrast to the “variable” component, comprising of wage labour. Because any expropriated surplus comes from the exploitation of labour, the relative decrease of capital’s “variable” component causes the rate of profit fall. This dynamic is overcome by increasing the rate of exploitation- either directly or indirectly. <BR/><BR/>'Wages can be cut as a proportion of GDP (Gross Domestic Product); or workers can provide for corporate welfare - taking collectively upon themselves the costs of education and infrastructure.<BR/><BR/>'Similarly, social programs and welfare can be cut to provide scope for further corporate subsidy.'<BR/><BR/>Wages can increase in real terms while the rate of profit declines. For example since about 1983 (when the Accord started) wages as a percentage of national income have been falling and profits rising. The wages share is now at its lowest in over forty years; the profit share at its highest ever.<BR/><BR/>Yet while real wages have increased generally over that time - in part becuase of trade offs and increased productivity, profit rates have fallen. <BR/><BR/>Second,since there is a systemic fault in capitalism - the tendency of the rate of profit to fall - then it appears logical to me to say capitalism cannot be reformed. Rather only a society based on co-operation and democracy, in which production is democratically determined in order to satisfy human need, can be the way forward. And that won't come about through bourgeois parliaments; rather it will come about through workers themselves extending democracy into their workplaces and creating their own democratic organs of rule. Anyway, it is late and the guard is tired. (Bad joke.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com