nathan tankus wrote:
> Capitalism is highly unstable.
Yes and no. Maybe it's useful here to employ Poulantzas' distinction between the capitalist mode of production and capitalist socieities.
The capitalist mode of production is prone to crisis. Crisis is an inherent feature of the capitalist mode of production, and Marx was really the first to point this out.
However, this crisis-prone nature of the mode of production does **not** mean that capitalist **societies** are unstable. Capitalist societies, especially the western industrial ones, are quite stable.
I think that is what Carrol meant by once or twice in a lifetime opportunities.