US recession, Steel, rail, teachers, Israel

[Max Sawicky]

GF: If I may skip over several steps of argument here, what I
think you're saying in essence is that growth is a political
need of the ruling class, rather than an economic need of
the community as a whole.

That being the case, the defect of the Greens' alleged
desire for zero growth which J.H. disparaged is not the 
zero growth itself, but their omission of specifying the
concomitant requirement -- the overthrow or dissolution of
the class system and the class war that sustains it.

mbs: On a), I would say that insofar as growth is an expectation
of the masses, it becomes a 'need' for psychological
reasons and to rulers for political reasons (stability,
consent of the governed).

On b), the defect of ZG is the fact that advances in economic
justice usually require growth as a context -- since zero-
sum disputes are typically resolved in favor of the relatively
privileged.  "Overthrow or dissolution . . . etc." taken in
isolation is just ultimatism, a substitute for politics in
the here and now.  So this would be the exchange of one
form of unreality for another.

mbs