[lbo-talk] New Imperialism?

Michael Dawson MDawson at pdx.edu
Wed Mar 30 09:33:22 PST 2005



> The capitalist system, unlike
> the pre-capitalist ones, doesn't require direct and immediate use of
> coercion. Commodity fetishism is usually enough to keep the system going.
>
> Ulhas

False. As Veblen put it, capitalism makes the coercion covert. But how would capitalism exist without the pink-slip? The threat of moving the factory? The forced choice? The advertising trick? The jails? All coercive, all deployed intentionally by the masters, and all essential to the system. The scale and style of the threats has changed, but not the purposes and ends...



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