[OPE-L:4364] Re: Re: growth rates

From: Paul Cockshott (paul@cockshott.com)
Date: Mon Oct 30 2000 - 06:37:31 EST


On Fri, 27 Oct 2000, you wrote:
 
> Capital mobility is not low because technical change is slow. In a 
> less developed capitalism capital mobility is low and technical 
> change is slow. An advanced capitalism gives rise to a real tendency 
> towards the ever more rapid equalization of profit rates due to the 
> development of capital markets and the freer mobility of labor power 
> (both are consequences of capitalist development, historical results) 
> and an ever strenghthening tendency of the search of surplus profit 
> on the basis of on going technical change due to the endogenization 
> of science and technology (also a historical result of capitalist 
> development).  An advanced capitalist system is ridden with 
> contradiction, and is by its nature turbulent.

There are variations in the rate of technical progress even among
advanced capitalisms. For example the United Kingdom has for
the last half century had a growth rate of about 2.5% per annum.
It is a developed economy. Other developed economies, Germany,
Japan, Italy have had higher growth rates. Developing economies
such as  South Korea have had even higher growth rates.

There is if anything a negative correlation between the level
of development of a capitalist economy and its growth rate.

The Farjoun Machover theory would predict a positive correlation
between the dispersion of profit rates and the rate of growth of
productivity. Your theory would predict the inverse, these are
at least testable hypotheses unlike most of the arguments you
put forward. Why not try and test them out?
 
-- 
Paul Cockshott, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
0141 330 3125  mobile:07946 476966
paul@cockshott.com
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/people/personal/wpc/
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/reports/index.html



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Oct 31 2000 - 00:00:12 EST