Re: [OPE] capitalism as an unnatural system

Jerry wrote:

"One should not conflate ideas and ideologies"
An ideology is a set of ideas, so the two are related, but not identical.

"the representatives of the slave system the and feudal order also claimed
that their modes of production were natural and eternal."
The feudal system was supposedly created by God, not nature, and was to
exist only temporarily, until Judgment Day.

"it should be clear from the HISTORY of the conception of free competition
that it ALWAYS concerned a claim about what capitalism *SHOULD BE*."
'Ought' is connected to 'Is', and superstructure is connected to base. It's
undialectical to separate one from the other.

"there was NEVER a historical period where there was free competition under
capitalism."
We've gone through this before. The error here is to abstract free
competition from the contradictory historical reality in which it
necessarily co-exists with regulation and monopoly, and then to look for
that abstraction in the real historical world. Since free competition does
not exist in a pure and one-sided form, you conclude that it does not exist
at all.

"THere were simply periods in which there was more or less regulation and
'interference' by the state."
It follows that there were simply periods in which there was more or less
freedom to compete.

Paula

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Received on Tue May 17 17:47:06 2011