British Business Secretary criticises capitalism...

[ed miliband]

and apparently it's very, very naughty to do so.

In reality he didn't say anything particularly (or even slightly) radical, but I'm reporting it because it seems to be today's 'Big Story' and there are a number of interesting things about it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/22/vince-cable-criticism-attacks-capitalism

I don't think Vince Cable's comments are really worthy of any attention, especially considering he clearly seems nothing wrong with capitalism and just wants to see it castrated a bit, at the most. But the reaction has been pretty interesting. It seems to be a faux pas to mention capitalism in any context at all (one commentator described it as the "c-word"), and doing so in even a slightly negative light makes you a Marxist (as Cable has been called, seriously). Other attacks have been along the lines of 'if capitalism is so bad then what does Cable want to replace it with?', etc., like RadioRaheem mentioned the other day. He was also told by the Adam Smith Institute that he didn't understand Adam Smith, though I think it's clear he understands Adam Smith quite well. Apparently he should also apologise for what he said, LOL.

[Nolan]

What not you...HERESY!

[RebelDog]

Cable is just paying lip service to the fact that what has taken place over the last 2 years with regard to the bailout, and the subsequent cuts in public spending, is highly unpopular with the public and some LIb Dem members. Its like a judge telling a convicted serial murderer to stop being a naughty boy and letting him free to carry on his wicked ways. Him and his tory friends are ransacking public services to line the pockets of the business elite so his opinion is worthless to rational observers.

[Red Commissar]

The only thing Vince Cable did was mention a taboo with capitalists in the UK- their form of capitalism won't work. Cable is as capitalist as they come, I find it amusing seeing articles- like this"gem" from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11388764)- proclaiming his supposed beliefs.

Of all the more mainstream British services, I think the New Statesman said it the best in regards to Cable:

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2010/09/cable-capitalism-smith-karl



Why Vince Cable is no Marxist

Posted by George Eaton (http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/george_eaton) - 22 September 2010 09:42
His arguments owe more to Adam Smith than they do to Karl Marx.

The Lib Dem conference has so far produced few memorable speeches but Vince Cable's widely-trailed address should prove an exception. He will warn that the current system "takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can", that markets are "often irrational and rigged" and will promise to shine a "harsh light into the murky world of corporate behaviour".

Inevitably, the free-market right have interpreted Cable's speech not as an attack on unfettered markets but on capitalism tout court. The CBI's Richard Lambert has criticised Cable's "odd" and "emotional" language and his predecessor, Digby Jones, has accused the Business Secretary of "rabble rousing".

But Cable's arguments owe more to Adam Smith than they do to Karl Marx. His words reflect the centuries-old awareness that the free market is not synonymous with competition or the public interest.

As Smith, that great apostle of capitalism, argued:
The interest of the dealers in any particular branch and trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from and even opposite to, that of the public.
Which now looks like a rather prescient comment on the British banking sector. Elsewhere, on the self-interested nature of industry, he pointed out:
Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent and regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.
What Cable's critics are too intellectually barren to acknowledge is that there are alternatives to the finance-dominated Anglo-Saxon model beyond that of state socialism. The Swedes do capitalism, the Americans do capitalism, the French do capitalism, even the Chinese do capitalism. But they all do it in very different ways. When Richard Lambert sneers that it "will be interesting to hear his ideas for an alternative" he fails to acknowledge this reality. But at least some of our political class may be about to.

UPDATE: Cable left in his attack on capitalism but added a reference to Adam Smith that wasn't in the text last night. Perhaps the Business Secretary read the Staggers over breakfast?
He said: "Capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can, as Adam Smith explained over 200 years ago."

[crazyirish93]

a nice argument on sky news 2 speakers the question is capitalism good for us 1 is supposed to argue yes 1 for no but they both agree capitalism is good :laugh:

[ed miliband]

The only thing Vince Cable did was mention a taboo with capitalists in the UK- their form of capitalism won't work. Cable is as capitalist as they come, I find it amusing seeing articles- like this"gem" from the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11388764)- proclaiming his supposed beliefs.


OMG, this BBC article is insane!! Taking isolated and completely unrelated quotes from both men and attempting (very, very badly) to compare them in a way that not even Glenn Beck would dare.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

The media trivialize Marxism when they debate over whether Cable is a Marxist, or whether Obama is a Marxist.

Vince Cable, part of the right-wing, pro capitalist coalition in Britain owes more to Adam Smith than Karl Marx? You don't fucking say.

[ed miliband]

The media trivialize Marxism when they debate over whether Cable is a Marxist, or whether Obama is a Marxist.


They don't even trivialize it, they just make no effort to understand Marx and then mock everything he had to say.

[Vanguard1917]

The media reaction to this was bizarre and surreal. He explicitly says that he supports capitalism, business and the market, but gets compared to Karl Marx because he recognises that monopolies pose a problem to a capitalist economy (nothing new there for a bourgeois ideologue) and joins in the scapegoating of bankers that was, after all, initially launched by the rightwing media and the Tories.

In reality, Cable is the quintessential TINA proponent. As far as he's concerned, there really is no alternative to way that the economy is essentially organised -- and that's the one thing that his little speech essentially put forward.

[The Idler]

qJJd9NiZyM0

[ed miliband]

It makes me laugh how business is almost deified; how 'business skills' are spoken about like they are qualities of character that people are born with.

[ed miliband]

I think John Rees gets a bit too emotional in that interview. He doesn't argue very well.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

I just had an argument with someone who thought that the BBCs article was a "post-ironic" (forgive me) jab at the right-wing.

Were the BBC seriously as stupid as to think that comparing bits of Vince Cable's speech to bits of Marx's writings warrants as acceptable journalism?

[ed miliband]

I just had an argument with someone who thought that the BBCs article was a "post-ironic" (forgive me) jab at the right-wing.

Were the BBC seriously as stupid as to think that comparing bits of Vince Cable's speech to bits of Marx's writings warrants as acceptable journalism?

Show the person you're arguing with clips of BBC interviews with people like Zizek, Harvey and Chomsky; anything vaguely left-of-center is treated as eccentric at best.