From a social ecology perspective...
I don't think capitalism will collapse from this economic situation. There are too many social welfare programs -- even in the US -- that will keep it from happening. This is quite a different situation from the Great Depression. Also take into account the waning influence of labor and the ability of capitalism to coopt movements, and you have an uphill battle.
Murray Bookchin and others argued that advanced capitalism will not collapse due to internal contradictions, such as economic crises. By looking at the recent past, we can see that he was right. Since the Great Depression, capitalism has become more managing. There are social "safety nets" in place that didn't exist in the 1930s in the US.
Quote:
Defying all the theoretical predictions of the 1930s, capitalism has restabilized itself with a vengeance and acquired extraordinary flexibility in the decades since World War II. In fact, we have yet to clearly determine what constitutes capitalism in its most "mature" form, not to speak of its social trajectory in the years to come. But what is clear, I would argue, is that capitalism has transformed itself from an economy surrounded by many precapitalist social and political formations into a society that itself has become "economized." --Murray Bookchin, "Radical Politics in an Era of Advanced Capitalism"
Principally an economic model (duh), capitalism has worked its way into all aspects of society, becoming a dominant form of society, as well (though really it doesn't replace our social relations so much as destroy them, turning immaterial needs that were once fulfilled by society into material needs satisfied by the market -- i.e. friendship now becomes MySpace). This allows capitalism to coopt movements and redirect worker/consumer outrage.
Bookchin would argue that because of this, capitalism has been able to regulate almost all aspects of our existence -- particularly our relationships (to goods, to each other, to authority, etc.). Therefore, it is able to manage us during economic crises that come about due to its own internal contradictions (as we are currently seeing; where is the revolution? Even in Iceland, all that has come about is a change in government).
Quote:
. . .[W]e cannot any longer ignore. . . the present day reality of a managed capitalist system -- managed culturally and ideologically as well as economically. . . . Far from having an internal source of long-term economic breakdown that will presumably create a general interest for a new society, capitalism has been more successful in crisis management in the last fifty years than it was in the previous century and a half.
The classical industrial proletariat, too, has waned in numbers in the First World,. . . in class consciousness, and even in political consciousness of itself as a historically unique class. . . . To live with the hope that capitalism will 'immanently' collapse from within as a result of its own contradictory self-development is illusory as things stand today. --Murray Bookchin, "Radical Politics in an Era of Advanced Capitalism"
This, in a nutshell, is the current economic critique from a social ecology standpoint.
So, I don't believe that this is the economic crisis that will bring down capitalism. I believe the impetus for the overthrow of capitalism lies in the
external crises that it causes -- namely, environmental/economic destruction. I'd love to talk about this with anyone interested. For more about these ideas PM me or see:
http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?...cussionid=1280
http://www.revleft.com/vb/consumer-c...434/index.html
However, what would happen if this crisis
was the downfall of capitalism? Would it just get rebuilt? Is the revolutionary left loud enough, strong enough, coherent enough, and immersed enough to have any say in what the next form of society will take? Djehuti has already touched on this issue. To me, it's a rather scary thought. I don't think we laid the groundwork as we should have. The consciousness just isn't there yet.