From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Fri May 30 2003 - 09:37:25 EDT
Paul C wrote on Friday, May 30: > I dont claim any expertise on demographics, but it is fairly evident > that once a country becomes fully industrialised the birth rate falls > dramatically. > Reasons for this will be many, the dissolution of patriarchal economic > relations and the participation of women in the labour market, the > availability of contraception on a general basis, the replacement > of filial piety by state pensions and mutual funds. Whatever the > detailed causes, the fact remains that a couple of generations after > industrialisation capitalist countries seem dependent on immigration > to ensure population growth. With the possible exception of increasing participation of women in the labour market, there is no reason to think that any of the above developments are *necessary* consequences of the development of capitalism. So, if your explanation for population change ultimately rests on accidental or historically contingent reasons, then your explanation for why the OCC rises and the rate of profit will fall also becomes subject to historical accident and contingency. Since you also, on May 20, refer to how this contradiction will "seal its fate", your explanation implies that whether the fate of capitalism will be "sealed" depends on whether the contingencies that you have suggested re population change actually develop as you anticipate. In solidarity, Jerry
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