Re: Can capitalism be reformed?

> To Alan Spector:
> According to your last post, Keynesian policies are bound up with
> exploitation of 3rd world countries.
> To find out whether there is any logical foundation for this
> assumption, let us consider his basic principles
> As I see them, they can be resumed as follows:
> 1. the economy needs investment both from the private and the public
> sectors and
> 2. in order to soften the business cycle, Governments must invest MORE
> during recessions, in order to be able to employ people, who lost
> their private sector jobs. To finance such investments, governments
> must REDUCE their investments and SAVE during boom times.
>
> This has absolutely NOTHING to do with whatever exploitation of third
> world countries might or might not have happened at any time.
>
> Keynesian policies were abandoned NOT because they had lost their
> validity, but because politicians stimulated the economy NOT to soften
> the business cycle, but before election in order to win them.
>
> At present there is great need to reintroduce Keynesian policies,
> because so many well paying industrial jobs are being eliminated
> through automation, relocation, outsizing and restructuring.
> To have any chance for success, such a movement would have to
> implement new checks and balances in order to prevent abuses and
> excesses by unscrupulous politicians, while on the other hand find
> ways to eliminate the worldwide domination by transnational
> corporations.
>
> These are enormous (maybe almost superhuman) but nevertheless not
> quite hopeless tasks, since at present so many people are willing to
> act decisively AGAINST the present world order. What is therefore
> needed is to channel such energies AWAY FROM PURELY NEGATIVE PROTESTS
> into more POSITIVE movements towards a better world system; one that
> would preserve the best features of private enterprise, while
> reactivating an efficient public supervision.
>
> You and many of your ideological comrades would - of course - prefer
> more drastic solutions, but if past history gives us any clues, such
> extremist programs are bound up with dictatorial governments which
> sooner or later lead to the bloody excesses of Stalin and Pol Pot,
> since
> POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.
> Regards                     Paul
>