Is Economic Growth a Positive Sum Game (Jim O'C)

Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us
Thu Feb 10 07:42:21 PST 2000


Capitalism got started by a gigantic negative externality. As Marx pointed out , the chief momenta of the primitive accumulation of all of capitalism was slavery and colonialism, the commission of a holocaustic , economic rape of Africa , America and Asia, the colored peoples' burden. Marx describes some of the Dutch external crimes in _Capital_.

CB


>>> Barbara Laurence <cns at cats.ucsc.edu> 02/01/00 10:39PM >>>
So says Brad, who must have read Hirschman and Schumpeter. The latter said there is war in capitalism only because of atavistic thinking/feeling; that trade and accululating money are essentially pacifist activities. Hirschman writes convincingly of the "passions" and the "interests" -- the latter dominant in capitalism, the former in medieval times, religious states, and other irrational forms. He makes clear that the Dutch understood this from the start, legitimating Dutch commercial and physical expansionism on the ground that the interests subordinated the passions. There are a lot of problems with these formulations. One of them is that negative externalities are ignored. Economic growth to date anyway hasn't been positive sum game because negative externalities tend to be borne by the poor or not so well-to-do, while the well-to-do tend to appropriate the positive externalities for themselves. The whole process of industrialization/economic growth suffocated, poisoned, etc., much of the population of Lancashire (latter Pittsburg, etc.) while the well-to-do lived on the hill and had trout streams out of harm's way. Positive externalities such as come from "clustering" development went to capital. In other words, there are huge effects of economic growth the "cost" of which doesn't fall on capital but rather the have-nots. One can go a step further and add that fast growth hence fast growth of positive externalities for the haves were and are possible only because negative externalities were also growing fast, which fell mainly on labor, the poor, people of color, etc. Jim O'Connor



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