http://chronicle.com/article/Capitalisms-Dismal-Future/126659/ By Paul Mattick From the essay: "As a result, although today's capitalism is in many ways a much-transformed version of its 19th-century self, this transformation has not brought an abatement of the systemic problems diagnosed by its critics in that century. It presents them, instead, in new forms. In fact, the crisis looming before us is likely to be, if anything, more terrible than the Great Depressions of 1873-93 and 1929-39. The continuing industrialization of agriculture and urbanization of populationâby 2010, it is estimated, more than half the earth's inhabitants lived in citiesâhas made more and more people dependent upon the market to supply them with food and other necessities of life. The existence on or over the edge of survival experienced today by the urban masses of Cairo, Dhaka, São Paulo, and Mexico City will be echoed in the capitalistically advanced nations, as unemployment and government-dictated austerity afflict more and more people, not just in the developed world's Rust Belts but in New York, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, and Prague."
1) 1873 to 1893?....20 years!....Dang! I'll have to read up on that one. :eek: 2) People tend to compare today to the early 1980's and seldom to the 1930's. 3) Capitalism "succeeds" during bull markets. It "fails" during bear markets.
Another nice article. It's 2011, capitalisms dismal future? Capitalism has brought us a plethora of avenues to discuss the dismal future of capitalism, the internet, social networks, vaious new media. All we can do is talk and write, from the lowly poster to the educated phd, no one is doing anything except clustering around the campfire talking about capitalism. Wake up people, capitalism is not shovel ready, nothing is shovel ready, it's just talk, a dream, of some forgotten principle of days gone by.