[lbo-talk] a different view of U.S. mfg

[Patrick Bond]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> On Jan 21, 2008, at 10:49 AM, Patrick Bond wrote:
>   
>> where's your marxian gut instincts, to hunt down all the
>> partially devalorised constant K that could be returned to production
>> were there the will and the market (i.e. demand side) and protection
>> from competition?
>>     
> I'm not sure what kind of system you're talking about here - some  
> sort of national protectionist capitalism, or some kind of autonomist  
> collectivism, or what. 

Ah, you duck the analytical question: is the Rust Belt economy 
overcapacity or undercapacity?

On potential ways forward, as I understand it (from only a brief visit 
and follow-up reading), the Venezuelan strategy is to develop a variety 
of industries that were wasted away by neoliberalism, even if that means 
violation of WTO. Call it a 'basic needs ISI' plus manufacturing 
balancing, as opposed to traditional Third World ISI oriented to 
replacing luxury-good imports for a small fraction of the consuming 
population (i.e., the South African or Rhodesian models).