[lbo-talk] OWS Demands working group: jobs for all!

Mike Beggs mikejbeggs at gmail.com
Fri Oct 21 15:02:29 PDT 2011


On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 7:45 AM, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:


> This is logical, but it's not...


> ... historical. This is why I like to use the term administrative. You
> think full employment can be just implemented and that's that. But
> that's never happened without the stratifications Voyou and I have
> mentioned or without very bloody war (at least in a substantial
> capitalist economy, which Sweden doesn't count as). As Doug said here
> a few years ago: "The only problems that capitalism can't solve by its
> very nature - leaving aside the contingencies of politics and such -
> are polarization and cyclicality." I think it's on you to describe how
> something that has never happened--how polarization has been
> overcome--is now possible.

I think it's you who is not being historical. It's not enough to say this was contemporaneous with that - how were they functionally related? Are they necessarily so? The ball's still in your court on this - you just dismissed the Sweden example without dealing with it at all. The US had full employment for hardly any time at all, it's not the baseline here.

Mike



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