Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Collective Capitalism

For those unwilling to accept Adam Smith's views on joint-stock companies (see The Real Laissez Faire) There is fortunately an alternative form to draw upon. It is described by the German economic theorist Karl Marx in Capital Vol. 3 as follows:

"Capitalist joint-stock companies as much as cooperative factories should be viewed as transition forms from the capitalist mode of production to the associated one, simply that in the one case the opposition is abolished in a negative way, and in the other in a positive way."

The fact that such a collectivist scheme met with much the same corruption and suffering (by the end of the 19th Century) as those schemes practiced under Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc. should then come as no suprise--and such examples should help us to understand what makes our current system so completely unsustainable.

1 comment:

  1. Dude, you are using my nickname. Please change it. You can google me. I'm the only Isonomist, and have been since 2001. You can view my blog at Isonomistblog@blogspot.com

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