Quote:
Originally Posted by roachboy
what on earth, in the face of the entire history of actually existing capitalism, enabled the conservative wing of the american political monoculture to make the claim "markets are rational" with a straight face, and even more bewildering, how was that taken seriously?
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Historical distance from the Great Depression perhaps. Even folks in their eighties would have only experienced it as children. I think too that 1970s libertarians & neoliberals profited from new left critiques of the postwar state.
Neoliberal dogmatists are now saying that the bailout will be like Nixon's price controls will prolong the slump, that democratic intervention (through, say, Congress imposing conditions on the bailout or regulating financial markets) will be a Bad Thing. It's something like market royalism or market transcendentalism, where other structures of power have to be parallel to the market's. If we have a transcendental market we need a transcendental Treasury, transcendental executive. It seems to imply similar attitudes toward authority.
-----Added 22/9/2008 at 05 : 43 : 47-----
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cynthetiq
Looking at other countries as a lead in business and wealth distribution, I don't see anything wrong. People can invest in their wealth, or they can buy adidas, escalades, and HDTVs. No, most people aren't interested in building wealth. Consumerism shows that. Savings accounts show that.
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If people didn't buy shit, the whole fucking thing would collapse. Morally upright capitalists with savings accounts would suffer.
Among other things, savings accounts show that real wages are low.