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Socialism for the rich: the unwise free market : Comments
By Binoy Kampmark, published 31/3/2008Bank bailouts: corporate success is the success of a few individual executives; but when the company fails, we must all fail with it.
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While the description may be true - "socialism" for the wealthy - what's your prescription? More or less of this?
Or is there another question? Why is this all going on? Maybe booms and slumps are natural to the way capitalism is organised. I say that not to defend the system but to point out its inherent weaknesses.
Arguably each slump since WWII is worse than the one that went before. And arguably bailing out major capital providers only smooths out booms and slumps for a little while and in fact may exacerbate the problem in the long term.
I say this not to argue for the so-called free market or state intervention but to say that a system based on the expropriation by the elite of surplus value from workers is inherently unstable. To me the solution appears to be to replace the profit system with one that sees production organised democratically to satisfy human need.
Otherwise we may end up seeing the common ruin of the competing classes.