- Capitalism and Alternatives -

Who are you trying to fool? (better draft)

Posted by: Barry Stoller on October 22, 1999 at 15:51:53:

In Reply to: Objective law, subjective law...to some it is all the same. posted by David on October 22, 1999 at 13:54:34:


: I am disavowing pure democracy; one in which everybody votes on everything.

That's obvious. And that's why I say you are no friend of democracy!

: If, as you imply, the objective law is subjected to the whims of a minority (or a majority) than it is not really 'objective,' is it? When I say 'objective law' what I mean is one which forbids the violation of anyone's individual rights.

Freedom to---or freedom from? To posit one is to deny any differing interests in (class) society. That's a brazen falsehood.


: : Elizabeth Dole, the first woman to be taken seriously as a candidate for her party's Presidential nomination, dropped out of the race today, saying she could not raise enough cash to compete with the fortune raised by one Republican rival [Bush] and inherited by another [Forbes].
(Yesterday's New York Times, sec. A, p. 1, emphasis added.)

: I am not very well versed in political financing so I am not in any position to comment on it objectively and with facts.

Sophisticated evasion!

: 'Rationed,' implies an arbiter. The only 'arbiter' in a free market is demand. If there are not enough skilled workers, than the wages offered to those that are skilled workers will necessarily go up.

Nonetheless the 'free market' (controlled by the capitalists) determines that capital will receive only the skilled workers it needs.

Percentage of American jobs requiring any skill above a high school level: 25% (Business Week, 1 September 1997, p. 67).

Percentage of Americans able to afford a B.A. or above: 23% (Statistical Abstract of the United States, table 243, p. 160).

Some coincidence, eh?

: Do you know why you need to buy that farm? Because there is no "unclaimed" land. If the land belongs to someone, you can't kick them off saying you don't want to participate in the economy. You have to give them something of value. Usually money.

Is that supposed to negate my claim that the access to the means of survival is mediated by the labor market?

: Those inequalities are caused by the corruption within our government, they are not a result of the free market.

The 'free market' is only free for capitalists to rob the working class of surplus value.

The only freedom working people have ever known is the fact that capital keeps them free fromaccess to the means of production.

Who are you trying to fool?


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