Immanuel Wallerstein

[Jacob Segal]

I just returned from the American Political Science Association conference
in Atlanta where Immanuel Wallerstein gave a lecture in which he argued
that the world capitalist order was headed towards a crisis.  This crisis
would be a result of a profit squeeze resulting from the increase in the
factors of production, wages, externalities, and taxation, and these
increase can not be compensated for by increasing prices, due to the
inelasticity of demand.  Wallerstein gave complicated explanation why
capital cannot avoid rise in the costs of production; the general reason
was the spread of capitalism; and so capital can no longer take flight to
places without unions and there are fewer places to dump waste products
etc.  Taxation will go up with the spread of the welfare state.
Wallerstein believes that neo-liberalism is a temporary and futile attempt
to forestall the crisis.

Does this mean I should get my hopes up?

Jacob Segal