Marx for beginners

[peaccenicked]

The one thing about the defenders of capitalism, they have in common is that they are like Don Quixote dashing at windmills created in their minds or by the
right wing hacks who get employed by the media in the
US and elsewhere.
It is a problem that might be helped if the capi's as Malte calls them actually tried to understand who they are talking to, what are we really saying, as far as general consensus exists.
Firstly, about independence of mind.
"Scott Miekle brings to light the following quote from Marx's correspondence.
"Here I quote Marx in praising Ricardo, for what he called scientific honesty, but also 'scientifically required', For the same reason he condemned as 'mean' a person who subordinated scientific objectivity to extraneous purposes. "
Is this not how an independent mind operates?
That means that just because something is from a left wing source it does not prove right or wrong. I want to know the validity of every single piece of information at my disposal and if you look at my website, you will see right wing sources republican and liberal . I even have a link to an isolationist republican anti war site.
But less of myself.
The plot is that there is a small group of people own most of the planet. This is not in our interests. Let us take that wealth away from them and share it with the world's majority. Let us increase our wealth since it is ours and not theirs. It was nt theirs in the first place. It was stolen from our ancestors. The middle class should not have petty material ambitions but own the world too with us. Socialists are not against personal property but the private property of the employing class who employ
the vast majority of the worlds workers. The revolutions in the poor countries failed because they were surrounded by big wealthy countries and were under siege thus becoming prey for counter revolution and horrific dictatorhips more in common with capitalism than working class democratic power.
All that history has shown is that revolution is possible when countries are in severe crisis, we need the developed world to ensure it does not act as a base of seige against our revolution elsewhere and we are going to regain the world in the name of our anscestors. What do you think you can say to us that will get in our road.
All you can do is try to rob us of knowledge of ourselves,
our size, our democratic spirit, our potential.
You are doomed to failure.
We have the force of historical truth on our side.



(Edited by peaccenicked at 11:17 pm on Jan. 24, 2002)

[peaccenicked]

Soros is definitely worried.

Soros critiques capitalism, WTO

BY AARON GLAZER
The Johns Hopkins News-Letter


Soros spoke about capitalism.
George Soros, international financier and philanthropist, spoke about globalization, international markets and anti-free trade protests as part of the 2001 Johns Hopkins University Symposium on Foreign Affairs.
Soros said that capitalism and globalism are inextricably tied together because of the large roles that international financial markets have played in domestic issues.

"There is not a viable alternative to capitalism, but that doesn't mean that capitalism is okay — it has grave shortcomings," said Soros.

Following the end of the Cold War, Soros said that he orients his philanthropic gifts toward helping countries transition from a closed to an open economy.

At present, he argued, globalization is seen as simply a reflection of the international markets. However, Soros said that he feels this is just one part of a global economy and that the international system has gone too far in only relying on markets.

According to Soros, there are several problems with globalization. There is an inherent instability in a global capitalistic system, he explained.

In addition, economic globalization increases the levels of financial inequality both within and between countries and distorts the allocation of funding between private goods and public goods.

Despite those problems, the system is moving in the right direction, Soros said.

He cited the Mexican economic crisis in 1994 and the Asian crisis of 1997 as examples of the strength of the global economic system, explaining that it can overcome such crises.

With these economic crises, Soros claimed, has come a shift in "burden sharing," where international monetary organizations assist countries in trouble.

However, the private sector has borne too small a part of this cost, he said. If the private sector were responsible for paying for a greater portion of these "bailouts," there would be no major economic booms and, therefore, no major economic busts, said Soros.

The flip side to the "bailouts," noted Soros, is that there is now an inadequate supply of capital which could cause a temporary global slowdown as a result.

Soros also spoke of concerns with the global currency system. Countries are shifting to one of two forms of currency valuation: either a currency board or a freely fluctuating currency, he explained.

Currency boards are failing, Soros said, a problem to which "there is no solution."

This is unavoidable, he explained.

"Whatever system prevails is bound to have flaws. I don't see an institutional reform that could save this problem short of a world currency — and we are very far from that."

Soros called for a more active management of economic markets.

"The idea that markets are self-correcting is a false idea [because the] … financial markets deal with the future [and] unknown quantities," he said.

When markets deal with something that is unknown, the natural equilibrium touted by free-market economists would not apply, Soros explained.

In order to manage the markets, reforms are necessary in international organizations, he said. The World Trade Organization (WTO), for example, must be reformed as it presently overrides all other international organizations, such as the International Labor Organization.

"The institution most effective is the WTO. It is, as must be recognized, the goose that laid the golden egg. But it also suffers from the idea of putting trade above all else," said Soros.

But, Soros noted, "It is unfortunate that the protests are directed at destroying the WTO because what is really needed is to develop equally strong institutions [concerning] the other aspects: the social aspects and the allocation of public goods."

To do that, the WTO must provide positive incentives to emerging countries to meet goals for human rights and workers concerns, he said. The political situation worldwide will not permit negative punitive damages against emerging countries; therefore, incentives would instead bring voluntary compliance with these concerns as a criterion of participating in the global economy, said Soros.

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