Re: [Fair-trade] Re: Can capitalism be reformed?

>   To Alan Spector:
>   You said:
>   "You misunderstand the meaning of my message, but I suspect most readers on
>   WSN understand it. I did not say that "Keynesianism"   "CAUSED" the problems
> of the past century.  I said that IMPERIALISM caused this misery ---
> capitalism
>   in the stage where it must seek investments in other countries to maintain
> its rate of profit by finding cheaper labor and markets."
>
> Please try to remember the following:
> 1. The main subject of our discussion is to find out whether capitalism can be
>
> reformed and NOT the sins of imperialism.
> 2. Capitalism and Imperialism are NOT the same; imperialism – the dominion of
> one country or one race over others - has existed since times immemorial and
> certainly long before capitalism came into being. It has also been widely and
> quite harshly practiced by the Soviet Union.
> Therefore bringing imperialism into the discussion is unwarranted and
> completely beside the point.
>
> As to your statement about
> “the connection between powerful nations' NEED for profits and the way that
> they implement political and military policies to enforce their ability to
> exploit workers in other countries,”
> I should like to make the following comments.
> While it is true that capitalims needs profits, such profits can be obtained
> WITHOUT exploiting workers in other countries. By not moving many of their
> plants into countries with lower wages or less stringent environmental rules,
> many goods would become more expensive, but that would not mean the end of
> market based private enterprise. Even today, under the objectionable
> neoliberal model, industrialized nations make MOST of their profits trading
> among each other or with the emerging East Asian tigers, because such
> prosperous countries have a much greater market potential. In other words,
> your conviction that capitalism cannot exist without exploiting the 3rd world
> is an article of faith, not supported by fact.
>
> This does not mean that Transnational corporations are dedicated
> humanitarians; many of them DO try to maximize their profits by any means and
> have thus brought misery to workers in both industrialized and 3rd world
> countries; THAT IS EXACTLY WHY A REFORM IS SO NECESSARY.
>
> Keynesianism and balancing foreign trade are measures that would eliminate
> some of the shortcomings of the present system, but it is quite possible that
> more might be needed; hopefully some of the members of the groups involved in
> this discussion will be able to advise us on this point.
>
> Regards                Paul
>