[lbo-talk] primitive accumulation

[abu hartal]

Doug,
The Chinese state possesses fictitious capital in the form of US government 
paper. The borrowed sum is dissipated in war and other revenue expenditures. 
Now let's put aside the post Keynesian argument (delusion?) that these 
expenditures will be somehow someway be self financing. The borrowed sum is 
not invested as capital by which unpaid labor time is appropriated. Nor has 
it been invested in so called human capital. To honor its debts  the US 
government will probably have to make its taxes more regressive (and 
consequently push wage below value of labor power) and slash social security 
and all kinds of benefits for the most vulnerable. This kind of state led 
transfer of wealth is indeed a form of primitive accumulation, no? It's a 
form of primitive accumulation which benefits the government's chosen 
contractors and possibly (though not looking likely) US investors in a new 
Iraq within the US orbit; and it benefits the Chinese state.

Marx certainly describes the system of robbery that is state debt as 
primitive accumulation.

Also the state has clearly moved from a rechtsstaat to a class state which 
will allow employers to break contractual obligations for pensions and the 
like. Why is this not primitive accumulation?

Forget Grossman, what does he know?

Abu Hartal

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