> Marx said there is a secular and ultimately irreversible tendency for
>
>>the profit rate to fall towards zero. This will bring about
>>capaitalism's demise.
>>
..................................
>>Capital accumulation is doing fine. The evidence that it's on its last
>>legs exists nowhere.
>>
I think there are two answers to the riddle.
1. Capitalism so far has always been partial, it depends (someone famous said this, Gramsci) and the continued existence of non-capitalist modes on its perifery from which it draws the content it claims not to need. When that periphery is absorbed, then indeed the profit rate will go to zero.
2. There is the possibility that a new periphery can always be created by means of war or other forms of disaster.
What is to be hoped is that capitalism is discredited and dismantled while human life is still possible. This is a political, not an economic problem.
Joanna