John, I am reading about the history of capitalism and industrialization...
***What is the title?***
One direct effect was the mobility of workers for employment in businesses... This ended up breaking down the cohesiveness of families and community...
***Hang on, this is tendentious phrasing... few of these workers desired mobility, they were rather forced to head where work was and privation was not...***
Therefore the social support systems broke down as a result of the free market...
***Hang on, you are trying to slip a fast one by... capitalism is not the free market... I've said so many times, and I am certainly no capitalist, in fact I call myself an "anti-capitalist free marketer" (among other things). If you want to say social support systems broker down as a result of capitalism, you'll get no argument from me. IN fact is it one of many ways capitalism is identical to communism. Nothing the capitalist did was possible without big govt/big bis cooperation... if you want a case by case study of this read Morton Horwitz listed below. Inalienable human rights and property rights had to be violated to arrive at the problems you cite, and only with govt cooperation.***
My question:::
Doesn´t this make the role of govt services more important to make up for this consequence of the free market???
My question:::
Doesn´t this make the role of govt services more important to make up for this consequence of the free market???
***No, given the definition problems. No, even if you want to say as a consequence of capitalism. The solution to the problems of capitalism is not more govt programs, it is freedom. We have a housing crisis right now... one of overcapacity. Instead of ramping up section eight vouchers and bailing out banks and big builders, govt should shrink and let the market lay waste the big banks, and housing prices will fall to where poor people can afford a home with what they earn. ***
2 comments:
The title is... Understanding Capitalism by Samuel Bowles, Richard Edwards and Frank Roosevelt
I have read 3 of the 20 chapters...
About mobility... many desired the mobility... that is why you see massive urbanization for over 100 years... and you see lots of immigration
The book has a clear definition of capitalism..."Capitalism is an economic system in which employers, using privately owned capital goods, hire wage labor to produce commodities for the purpose of making a profit."
How is the idea of Free Market different?
I hear what you are saying about suffering the consequences of a recession to purge the rottenness, but my point is that social support systems have been eroded over the past 100 years in the US, and currently so in emerging markets...
If you let people suffer from the collapse of an economic system that actually eroded the social supports over time leading up to that collapse, you continue to do damage to society...
My question is if govt´s role of social services is more important because workers are expected to get and go where the work is...
Have you seen the recent articles showing that worker mobility is limited now because of the problems with mortgages, foreclosures, refinancing and housing sales...?
People are left stranded, tied to a house, and can´t go to where the work is... this is a consequence of the economics...
The role of govt is to support the vulnerable part of the population... Because of Germany´s workshare program unemployment did not rise there... This maintains a strong and active work force...
Centuries ago, the unemployed could always find support within the community, but not now...
HI John, Just a quick comment... I know you say there is a difference between capitalism and free market... but aside from that...
there is the over-riding process of global industrialization... whether this process is under capitalism or free market, you still end up with family and community disintegration through urbanization and labor mobility...
Are you saying that a free market would maintain family and community support systems irregardless of industrialization and global wide urbanization???
How would it do that without govt programs, like medicare, meals-on-wheels, job training, food stamps, temporary unemployment benefits, disability support...?
A responsible society does not let these needs go unmet...
Post a Comment