From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Mon Sep 25 2000 - 08:41:21 MDT
"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> From: "Barbara Lamar" <shabrika@juno.com>
> > > Capitalists have never:
> > >
> > > a) operated concentration camps
> >
> > How about what was done to US citizens of Japanese ancestry during the
> > 1940's?
>
> Government did that, not capitalists.
I happen to have a 1971 Playboy interview of Albert Speer, Hilter's second in
command during WWII, after he was released from prison and had published his
book _Inside the Third Reich_. He was quite clear that the Nazi's, contrary to
what many leftists claim, were quite socialist, and planned on widespread
socialist economic restructuring of the economy 'after the war', far beyond the
industrial centralization he had overseen during the war. He also said that it
was a common understanding among the high command that Naziism was very close to
Communism, and that ex-communists often made the best Nazis.
>
> > > b) exterminated people they refused to do business with
> >
> > How about US aid to military in places such as San Salvador, Mexico,
> > Guatemala?
>
> Government did that, not capitalism.
Moreover, in those cases, it was the reverse: Those people refused to do
business with the US, and stole from US capitalists.
>
> > > c) exterminated anyone who looked at or talked badly about the
> > > bosses
> >
> > How about unruly slaves?
>
> Capitalism does not enslave people. It pays them wages.
Quite, the society of institutional slavery as an economic activity is a matter
of oligopolism, not capitalizm.
>
> > > d) waged war against people
> > > etc etc etc
> >
> > How about the USA/CSA war of the 1860's? How about the "war on drugs?"
>
> Capitalism markets drugs, it doesn't wage war against them. The Civil War was
> about federalism not capitalism.
Yes, harvesting machines that had recently come into vogue in the north were
banned in many southern states because of its potential impact upon their
'peculiar institution'. Lincoln called the harvester his 'secret weapon',
because its widespread utilization freed up many young men from the farms so
they could join the Union Army. Between the cotton gin and the harvester,
slavery was economically doomed, which allowed the citizenry the ability to
afford to live up to the values they had long aspired to, another demonstration
of the economics of rights.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:31:10 MST