[lbo-talk] Living beyond one's means

Bill Bartlett billbartlett at aapt.net.au
Wed Dec 24 16:59:33 PST 2008


At 2:31 PM -0500 24/12/08, Doug Henwood wrote:


>I can't believe you really think this. You have yourself so painted
>into an anti-moralizing corner that you talk nonsense. Give it up.
>Thinking capitalism is "bad" doesn't make you mushy-headed or banal
>or anything you'd rather not be.

I'm pretty sure that wasn't his stated position. Carroll's position was that capitalists weren't evil. His position then was merely that you should blame the system, not the participants in the system. That's actually a pretty important point to make, or you might get led down the garden path of either thinking that one can make improvements merely by getting a better class of capitalists running things. Or the other side of that coin, by toasting the evil capitalists.

So its an important clarification. Somewhat obvious, but it does need to be repeatedly made, because we just had a bit of a debate about whether it made sense to hate capitalists. And many people gave the wrong answer to that question, so obviously it is necessary to state the obvious (again) for the record.

Not just because its the season of goodwill to all men, but because its the ideologically correct position. ;-)

Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas



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