Meanwhile, I think if you admit the impact of past plunder and slavery, and you admit that the world economy is very unlikely to grow fast enough to permit the flowering of dozens of new Japans what more proof do you need? Would you argue that the economic position of African-Americans is unrelated to past slavery and plunder? Would you argue that more than a comparative handful of black Americans can solve their own economic problems within the present economic status quo in the U.S.? The point is entirely parallel: Present day status quo "successes" require the perpetuation of inferior positions created in the past. Only non-capitalist redistribution of resources and the substantial ceding of some existing privileges will permit equality at either level.
And what about this: If corporate capitalism's normal tendency is to polarize wealth and incomes within its G7 areas, why would this not also be true at the global level, where there are even fewer welfare-state mechanisms to counter the trend? Of course, it is true, in spades. How else does one explain the huge and growing gulf between the haves and have-nots in the world?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 2:48 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Superprofits
> Michael Dawson -PSU wrote:
>
> >"Our" wealth comes from the normal operation
> >of the world economy, which is now mature, leaving very little or no room
> >for new Japans.
>
> Uh, China? Before that, on a smaller scale, South Korea?
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