[lbo-talk] capitalism needs...

[Doug Henwood]

There have been a lot of sentences beginning "Capitalism needs..."  
around here lately. As far as I can tell, the only transhistorical  
thing you can say about capital's needs is profits. Aside from that,  
the thing is very flexible. Strong state, weak state; regulation or  
deregulation; slave labor or free labor; vertical integration or  
outsourcing; Jim Crow or "diversity."