war and the state

[Gordon Fitch]

Gordon Fitch wrote:
> >...
> >But at some point, demand for their goods driven by basic
> >wants is overwhelmed by the exponentially increasing powers
> >of production.  Now a problem threatens: there will not be
> >enough demand to supported continued capitalist progress.
> >Not only are goods becoming cheaper so that people may work
> >less and thus escape from the bourgeoisie's treadmills, but
> >the rents which capital can command must decline along with
> >the demand for the goods they can be used to produce.
> >
> >In order to keep the system going, the capitalists have to
> >figure out how to produce _scarcity_.  Scarcity means having
> >less stuff or power to get stuff than one desires, so one way
> >of producing scarcity is to destroy stuff, etc. etc. etc....

Wojtek Sokolowski:
> You sound as if there was some sort of a cabal of key capitalists meeting 
> in secrecy to devise new ways to keep the system going.
> That capitalists conspire to boost their profits is not news - that is the 
> essence of such common phenomena like "strategic planning" or 
> "lobbying."  But that is much different than saying that capitalist 
> machinations are responsible for most, if not all, ills of modern world 
> from wars to suburban sprawl to AIDS epidemics.  ...

I didn't say that.  I said that to keep capitalism going
after the first of two phases, it was necessary for the
capitalists to produce scarcity.  No conspiracy is necessary,
and not all evils need to be produced.

The actual capitalists need have only a vague idea of the
general problem:  they experience a decline in sales, profits,
wealth, status, influence.  Out of their mixed intuitions of
what the solution might be may spring advertising, oligopoly,
Welfare programs, or war -- most likely all four, and many
other strategems as well.  If scarcity can be produced, they
will be back in the saddle; if it can't, they'll walk.

-- Gordon