Herb Gintis critique of progressive economics | 69 comments (69 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Herb Gintis critique of progressive economics (4.00 / 2)

The argumet that if it is good, it would exist already is at is essens a conservative argument. Applied in a different time it could be an argument for any dominating economic model. It also supposes that politicla pressure is not brought to bear in order to benefit the dominating economic model.

Like the abolition of Yugoslavia's workers councils (that I would be interested to hear about how they worked from anyone with experience. vbo?)

Economy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the 1990s, IMF effectively controlled the Yugoslav central bank. Its tight money policy further crippled the country's ability to finance its economic and social programs. State revenues that should have gone as transfer payments to the republics and provinces went instead to service Belgrade's debt with the Paris Club and London Club. The republics were left on their own to survive. From 1989 through September 1990, more than a thousand companies went into bankruptcy. By 1990, the annual GDP growth rate had collapsed to a negative 7.5 percent. In 1991, GDP declined by a further 15 percent, while industrial output shrank by 21 percent.^[31]
The reforms demanded by Belgrade's creditors struck at the core of Yugoslavia's system of socially-owned and worker-managed enterprises. The objective of the reforms was to privatize Yugoslav economy and to dismantle the public sector. Instead of rebuffing the reforms, Yugoslavia was desperate and could not refuse their demand.

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by A swedish kind of death on Sun May 29th, 2011 at 03:16:44 PM EST
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Re: Herb Gintis critique of progressive economics (none / 0)

The argumet that if it is good, it would exist already is at is essens a conservative argument.

No, it isn't. There is no law against worker co-operatives, so it's not a question about "economic model." Not a question of "political economy," just about one particular form of organisation and a no-issue.

Should all companies be "worker co-operatives?" Why, if somebody wants otherwise? I prefer liberal democracy, individual liberty.

And even if, there still would be the same finance, real estate and resource markets that would rob blind these co-operatives. Production organisation does not address the core issues of land and finance.

by kjr63 on Mon May 30th, 2011 at 07:30:35 AM EST
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Re: Herb Gintis critique of progressive economics (none / 1)

kjr63:

No, it isn't. There is no law against worker co-operatives, so it's not a question about "economic model." Not a question of "political economy," just about one particular form of organisation and a no-issue.

I do not think there was any law against paying your workers in Rome, yet slave labor ruled, proving its superiority over wage labor. There was probably no law against corporations in medieval Europe, proving the superiority of the feudal system. So yes, it is at its core a conservative argument.

That something is legal is only a subset of the conditions necessary for an organisational form to thrive. Just to pick an example I am familiar with: in 1931 it was not illegal to form a co-operative bank in Denmark, but in 1933 it became illegal.
JAK members bank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The co-operative society Jord Arbejde Kapital was founded in Denmark during the Great Depression in 1931. The society issued a popular local currency which was subsequently outlawed by the Danish government in 1933. In 1934 it founded an interest-free savings and loan system and a Local Exchange Trading System. Though both systems were forced to close, the savings and loan system reemerged in 1944.

Economy is politics with other means.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Mon May 30th, 2011 at 07:43:38 AM EST
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Re: Herb Gintis critique of progressive economics (none / 0)

But of course there were stunningly successful companies in Europe in the 1300s. In Genoa and Florence and Germany there were joint stock ventures, family controlled companies, and international banking corporations.

by rootless2 on Mon May 30th, 2011 at 10:27:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Herb Gintis critique of progressive economics | 69 comments (69 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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