Tranferring the Costs of Capitalism
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SOCGRAD MINI-LECTURES
by
Many in sociology, history, economics and political science proclaim the end of history. They base these claims on the collapse of bureaucratic/centralized socialism in recent times. The reasoning begins with a very narrowly focussed look at the world today and, seeing nothing but the success of the 20 or so rich capitalist countries; seeing little in the way of effective and extensive opposition to the continued growth of capitalism in the rest of the 160 or so countries which make up the global economy, the End of History is proclaimed. Capitalism has won; all that is left to do is to eliminate all barriers to free trade and to commodify those few social goods and services not yet commodified.
There is a coterminous stance in theory centered around the quest for universal truth, eternally valid laws, tightly configured causality, precision in prediction and rationality in social control institutions. The new sciences of Chaos and Complexity are barrier to such science but that is another story I will tell at another time.
Just now I want to lay out for those of you who teach economic sociology, some of the problems with the End of History Thesis as it applies to the production and distribution of labor, goods, services and economic growth.
The counter argument to the End of History thesis is that, without these parallel economic systems, capitalism and free market dynamics would cycle out of control...and thus usher into the global economy social movements which will/do try to find a different way to produce and distribute the essentials of life and culture. Indeed, the many conflicts around the world such as those in Bosnia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Lebanon and Quebec while appearing as ethnic wars may be understood, as well, as economics by other means. Many of the cultural wars in the USA; racism, anti-feminist politics, animus toward Asian and Hispanic migrants may well be expressions of the struggle against the totalizing and immiserating tendencies of capitalism of which I spoke in the first of this series.
The family, as an economic unit, supports a great many of those who are not yet in the labor market, who are too ill or too old to compete in the labor market, who are not yet trained or who are untrainable to the labor needs of advanced monopoly capitalism. Indeed, it is a basic tenet of socialist feminism that wives, mothers, and other female relatives a do the fundamental work of reproducing the labor force...and they do it well and they do it absent wages, salaries, perks, bonuses, stock options and retirement portfolios said to be essential for the CEO's of private corporations.
The argument is that capitalism could not survive on its own merits; the State guarantees the domination of private capital by providing hundreds of low-profit services; by subsidizing a great many lines of production [not the least of which is cotton, tobacco, beef, sugar as well as many high tech goods.
The State wins a thin and mean-spirited legitimacy by covering the living expenses of a large and growing 'surplus' population.
The State spends billions to defend American firms abroad; to guarantee access to raw materials [Operation Desert Storm was more about oil than about freedom]; to prevent labor unrest in third world countries; to protect access to markets for American firms in Africa, Asia, India and Latin America...es- pecially Latin America.
Street Crime...is the forcible reunification of production and distribution by those who do not care to supply labor or exchange in goods. Burglary, robbery, mugging, hi-jacking shop-lifting, auto theft, arson and other forms of economic transfer resorting to force or stealth re-distribute several billions in non-market processes.
White Collar crime...involves the betrayal of trust by an employee or a professional. In the case of the employee, s/he supplements his/her salaries or wages [middle and upper manage- ment steals far more than clerks or secretaries]...these add to their income outside labor market dynamics. Professionals: doctors, lawyers, brokers, and yes, professors take advantage of the trust intrinsic to their status-role for private gain. There is no marketting of goods or services; no mutually bind ing contract to produce and provide; very little merit, in terms of the service said to be provided, exists. Yet it is a very large slice of the American economy...exceeding the take in street crime by a factor of ten or more.
Organized Crime Syndicates. Oddly enough, these are very congenial to the logics of capitalism...organized crime transforms cherished social goods and services into market commodities to be bought and sold to whomever has the price.
Sex, gaming, psychogenic drugs and other prohibited goods or services are pushed by market demand; there is much competition, there is exchange for profit...and, slowly, the capitalist state is beginning to support and subsidize these otherwise prohibited goods and services; gambling and prostitution are as well as alcohol are provided by the some states...high profit as they are.
Corporate crime...the essence of this kind of crime is to evade market dynamics; to transfer costs to those who may not have purchased goods and to default on the contracts made when-ever profit considerations warrant. Oddly enough, the biggest enemy of capitalism, since the collapse of the Socialist Bloc, is the capitalism firm.
Political crime...a goodly part of the warfare made in the last 200 years has been made on behalf of capitalist firms in
But there are some 600 or more non-profit, tax emempt corp- orations whose main purpose is to support conservative causes. There is much merit in many conservative causes but few of these speak to the needs of the poor; more to the needs of wealthy...yet they are counted in the charity game.
Colonialism provides the cheap labor markets for the goods which are sold in 1st world markets to high paid workers. Walmart, KMart, Penney's, Sears and thousands of other retail firms make billions for their share-holders by buying in cheap labor markets and selling in rich labor markets...from Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Sing-a- Pore and of course, South America.
Slavery still exists and subsidizes capitalists. In Brazil, for one example, there are 25,000 documented cases of slavery last year...according to the Pastoral Land Commission.
Gabriel do Nascimento Vieira, a priest and head of the PLC in the brazilian state of Minas Gerais puts the figure in that state alone at over 100,000. No one has ever been prosecuted even though the Labor Ministry has thousands of documented cases on file.
Peasants who are surplus to both agricultural and industrial capitalism are recruited, with their families, to go to the charcoal kilns of Minas Gerais...they are keep in debt slavery and are policed by thugs until they pay off an ever-growing debt...food and other essentials are supplied by company stores.
Eucalyptus forests cover half the state...they provide 35 million cubic yards of charcoal. It is a $3.5 billion dollar industry which provides all the charcoal for steel making in Brazil...brazilian steel has replaced a lot of USA steel in the past 25 years since it costs less...USA auto and appliance firms are profitable...more profitable by using brazilian steel. Those of us who own stock in Ford, GM, Chysler and retail firms which sell refrigerators, fans, air conditioners, computers and other goods made of steel thrive on the enslave- ment of thousands of peasants in the 3rd world.
These parallel economic systems pick up many of the costs of capitalism. If they survive, then capitalism can continue and the End of History Thesis looks good. If these institutions fail, esp ecially the family, then history will continue until new and more equitable, less parasitic systems of production and distribution are invented and instituted.
TR Young
Europe or North America. Many wars were fought to win large markets in Africa, India, Asia, and Latin America...in those countries without an indigeneous capitalist class powerful enough to use state power to protect its interests. And many such wars are waged to gain access to the 86 or so 'strategic' raw materials needed for advanced industrial production.
Crime, in the USA, constitutes about 1/8 to 1/3 of the gross national product [depending on who is counting]. Add to this all the subsidiary services which depend upon crime; prisons, banks, luxury shops and dealers, suppliers of food, lawyers, judges, police and criminologists too, and one has a huge portion of the total economy.