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How much war, devastation, illegal wars, environmental destruction, refugee flows, regime change, imperial plunder, pandemics and starvaton can this earth and its people take?
Western “Science” and “Civilization” is just learning that the dimensions of the earth (soil, water, air and interlinked bio-systems) are all interlinked in webs of intricate balances of potential order in chaos and potenial chaos in order. Nothing is “exogenous” or external; all variables are “endogenous” and caused; The Newtonian dimensions of Space and Time, as well as Einstein’s Space-Time, not even mentioned in neoclassical, economics, along with class, race, power, history, politics, also exist.
The Mainstream Economics Texts say that Scarcity (wants/nneds > Resources Available to Satisfy them) is the basis of all Economics and all types of systems and it is an eternal and absolute problem. But not all forms of Scarcity are absolute (like the total energy created by the big bang 13.7 billion years ago); There are forms of scarcity that are system-specific; there are forms that are contrived or created and their are forms that are relative.
Global competition and warfare have become increasingly interdependent and more globalized as both causes and effects of globalization in the widening and deepening realms, spheres, forms and conequences of competition and warfare
[All social formations (SFs) in the world today are dynamic complexes of interrelated and dynamic modes of production (MOPs) that are remants of past MOPs (e.g. Communalism., Slavery, Feudalism) and existing full forms and embryonic forms of new MOPs (Capitalism and Socialism). Each social formation is labeled according to which MOP is dominant at any point in history. The American social formation, Imperialism and Monopoly Capitalism, has withhin it elements of Communalism, Slavery and Feudalism (Share Cropping and Peonage)
The Core Dimensions of all Social Formations
These are the Core Imperatives of Survival and Expanded Reproduction of all Social Formations no matter of what type; some more expanding than others.
Goals and outcomes of systems flow from the survival and expanded reproduction imperatives of all systems. Systems rise and fall according to their abilities to meet these goals for the broad masses of people and/or the ability of systems to hold off and divert the anger of its victims.
All social formations, and the interacting MOPs within them, must continually pose and answer these fundamental questions of survival and expanded reproduction governing all entities micro and macro; failure to pose and deal with these questions means ultimate demise of the system
These are the mechanisms and systems through which resources are allocated and questions of What, How, For Whom, Where, When, Why, in What contexts and with What outcomes and implications? are or are not posed and answered for the broad masses of people
A MOP may be seen as both a type of social system and whole historical age dominated by it: Communalism gave rise to Slavery, gave rise to Feudalism, gave rise to Capitalism, gave rise to Socialism in history; non-linearly. Each MOP is a dynamic complex of interrelated political-legal, economic, socio-cultural and historico-geographic dimensions that shape the basic Forces of Production and Relations of Production and Technology that make the economic base and the Superstructure of Politico-Legal, Socio Cultural, Historico-Geographic Institutions
MOPs represent both heuristics (models and rules of thumb) of Socioeconomic systems in history as well as whole historical Ages dominated by these systems respectively. Each system was ultimately doomed due to its own internal contradictions that gave rise to class-warfare of the many being controlled by the few. This is until real Socialism, the first MOP/SF in history, beyond Communalism, where the many control the few (who want their rule of the many back) rather than being contolled by them.
Marx’s Model of the Core features and structures of a Mode of Production. Economic Base (Forces and Relations of Production plus Technology) Superstructure (Political, Economic, Social, Cultural, Geographic, Historical Institutions and Relations) part of a broader Social Formation interacting with other MOPs, remnants of them and embryonic forms of emerging MOPs
Capitalism is but one of five basic MOPs known in history. This is a radical notion in that as capitalism is a product of history, and history does not repeat itself–it may echo and rhyme but not repeat itself–this suggest that one day capitalism, like previous MOPs, will not be the end of history, but a period of history, followed by the negation of the negation–the old established “Order” replaced as previous ones also were when their time had to come at peril of a lotof misery if it did not.
The core outcomes of capitalism necessary for its survival and expanded reproduction flow from the core structures, activities and processes of capitalism that flow from the core imperatives and “logic” of capitalism
In the course of posing and answering the basic questions of all economic systems–What, How, for Whom, When, Where, Why, With What costs and Implications–these are the core market processes that produce the outcomes. Capitalism is not only about markets, but markets and commodity production are central in capitalism more than any other historical MOP
Fundamental Outcomes of Markets: Scarcity —> Trade-offs —> Calculations —> Choices —> Supply/Demand actions-reactions —> market outcomes
Under capitalism all entities, macro in global competiton, or micro units in local, regional and national competition, face 5 core competitive threats
Forms of structured and managed competition by SSAs or Social Structures of Accumulation (dynamic, adapative and integrated institutions and relations) that manage forms of competition to enhance expanded reproduction of capital and capitalism
Four SSAs in U.S. Monopoly Capitalism. Social Structures of Accumulation are dynamic complexes of interrelated instiutions and power structures/relations, polico-legal, historico-geographic, socio-cultural and economic, that facilitate the continual accumulation and expanded reproduction of capital and capitalism
The “Logic” of Capitalism: WHY all individuals, firms and whole nations MUST do what they MUST do to survive and expand under capitalism as a system; and for national systems to survive in competition under globalized capitalism, with other national social formations for limited resources, markets, investment outlets, spheres of intluence etc
Neoclassical theory says that capitalism is the best possible system for producing not only the greatest wealth and prosperity for the greatest number, but doing so, via competition, in the most “Efficient” possible ways; These are the 5 forms of “efficency” that make up the 6th broadest form of “Allocative Efficency” (no person can be made “better off” without someone else made worse off). These forms of efficiency are also potentially contradictory under the imperatives of capitalism
In “mainstream” economics, “Efficiency” is in five forms that make up the broadest form allocative efficency. But it is all about more output per unit of input (technical eficiency) and minimizing total costs (economic efficiency). It does not matter what the output is as long as it is “legal”. Well the neoclassicals would love Auschwitz because they had it down how to maximize output (death) with minimum inputs and total costs. This is a captured and translated document on the accounting at Auschwitz.
In the Mainstream News Media, the core imperatives of effective competition and survival of the individual journalist, or profit-driven news organization as a whole, look like this. ACCESS is the “Coin of the Realm” and the key to continued accumulation of SCOOPS, EXPOSURE and CELEBRITY and more ACCESS…
In mainstream (petit-bourgeois) Academia there is also the ACCESS game (to tenure-track positions, preferred courses and courseloads, tenure, promtions, organizational and grant support,—> EXPOSURE —>….
In the Mainstream Entertainment Sector, again the name of the game is ACCESS: to preferred studios, production facilities, organizational support, managers and agents, endorsements and promotions —> BIG HIT. Some like U2 start out from nowhere with a BIG HIT but they only keep ACCESS by knowing the game and what is or is not Taboo in terms of content and focus in commodified art.
Imperial Expansion Spiral as success begets itself, inequality begets itself; power begets itself; and global inequalities widen and deepen as does the resistance to them. The more and wider dispersed the acquired, the more to protect and the more costly and dangerous to try to protect it let alone expand it; ten new enemies for each new transitory “friend”–the fate of Imperialism
Imperial Contraction Spiral Downward in cumulative and self-reinforcing processes that like the expansion spiral, flow from the core and defining imperatives and logic of the system itself–at all levels micro to macro coupled with external reactions to global power projections and proxy wars
Carroll Quigley’s Cycle of Ages and Stages of Empire. Quigley lists some 16 out of his 20 estimated “Major Empires” in History; he wondered if America qualified as an Empire and listed the American Empire as (?)
Quigley’s Key Determinants of the Rise and Fall of Empires. What is missing from this list?
Quigley’s Stage of Mixtures. New Empires emerge out of “invasions” of new cultures, institutions, structures and systems, mixing with decaying elements of the Old Oder being penetrated, co-opted and transformed by the New (Negation of the Negation and Thesis Antithesis —> Synthesis —> New Thesis —>…)
Quigley’s Age of Expansion where new Institutions, Relations and Systems (SSAs) displace the old and set the stage for removal of old impediments to expansion; negation of the negation
Quigley’s Core Processes of the Age of Conflict. Says “Western Civilization” has avoided next Ages and Stages of Decline and Decay with institutional resilience (adaptive SSAs) and three separate Expansion –> Ages of Conflict “do-looping” back to Ages of Expansion: 970-1170 AD; 1440-1690 AD; 1170-1929; 1944-?
Core Processes of Quigley’s Age of Universal Empire: Widening and deepening contradictions, production > consumption, crises in Accumulation of Capital at home lead to external power projections, new markets, investment outlets, secure raw resources, new alliances and spheres of influence and globalization…
Core processes of Quigley’s Stage of Decline of Empires; Imperial overreach; mounting crises at home and abroad; new competitors enter and capture Empire’s spheres of influence, widening and deepening crises at home…
Back to the Stage of Mixtures (at higher levels of development–a spiral not a cycle) with indigneous structures, institutions, cultures, relations incrasingly penetrated, challenged, displaced by “Mixing” of the old with the new; The new New Synthesis that is the product of old order (Thesis) in confllict with New (Antithesis) produces a Thesis (established Order)
In the First Formative “Stage of Mixtures” of America, new cultures, institutions, nations, constructs, forms of property invaded, penetrated, co-opted, dominated, controlled and eventually sought to exterminate Indigenous Nations whose own institutions, cultures, values and traditional ways were seen as not only in contradiction with, but a threat to the New Orders and systems being transplanted and imposed:
Many of the core principles and approaches of Indigenous science are as much or beyond what passes for Eurocentric “Mainstream Science” and parallels in many ways the basic principles of Marxist epistemology.
Indigenous nations and remnants of them, just as with remnants of past social formations, remain within the realms of, and interact marginally with, the broader social formations of which they are a part.
Neoclassical theory focuses on supposed “equilibrium” or “Balance” in capitalist systems that are inherently unstable, in chronic disequilibrium and potential chaos at both the micro and macro levels. Indigenous Cultures focus on forms of balance and sustainability by trying to understand scientifically and be in harmony not disharmony with all around that is seen and not seen
Neoclassical theory treats capitalism and markiets as morphostatic systems that are seen as self-generating, stabilizing, equilibrating, renewing, reproducing, and expanding; whereas human history and the present shows them as morphogenetic systems subject to both + and – feeback loops and thus dynamic instability
Here is a point-by-point counter to the usual “free-market” types who usually cannot define, in their own theory, what are the essential elements of a free market and when have they ever existed except in small marginal markets.
Capitalism is about profit for power and power for profit. Both supply and demand sides need effective demand and markets which require value systems that create and drive the impulses to consume and profit and thus the imperatives to work and invest to consume and profit.
Some contrasts between the old “Mainstream” of Neoclassical Economics versus Political Economy, Economic Sociology, Institutional Economics or Heterodox
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