[lbo-talk] Consumer goods (Back to the USSR)

[Michael Dawson -PSU]

> As to "stages", more precisely it's modes of production. What is the
Marxist
> theory you are thinking that doesn't have modes of production as a
necessary
> concept ? This is _historical_ materialism, we are talking about.

I'm not against classifying "modes of production."  I'm simply against the
long and tedious tradition of trying to claim that one mode automatically
causes another mode to follow it.

Capitalism certainly _suggests_ socialism, but it itself does nothing but
work against it.  Feudalism (a weak form of empire), likewise, leaves room
for merchant power, but that's merely one aspect of the story.  If Europe
hadn't inherited Eurasian technologies and hadn't had the "New World" to
plunder, capitalism might never have happened.