[lbo-talk] Re: Superprofits

[JBrown72073 at cs.com]

I'd like to suggest another possibility, which is that capitalism is actively 
and aggressively underdeveloping and de-developing the world--the U.S. 
included.  Lacking big powerful socialist alternatives, capitalism is doing what it 
does best in this stage, destroy competition (using bombs if necessary), 
supress production, and generally make all of us poorer (with a shrinking number of 
increasingly rich exceptions). 

Is western prosperity dependent on immiseration of the global south?  No, 
western prosperity depended on the upward pressure on wages supplied by the big 
socialist examples.  You could argue that it was precisely that a big portion 
of what would have been the 'Third World' was mostly not in the capitalist 
orbit that most signally contributed to the development of the west post WWII.  
High public spending, high manufacturing wages, strong unions, etc.  
Immiseration in the U.S., on the other hand, is dependent upon suppression of the third 
world, the second world, and everyone else.

BTW, what's the origin of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd world division?

Jenny Brown