Euston We Have a Problem

There has been quite a bit of talk lately about the Euston Manifesto and what it means to be a principled leftist in time of war. Jeff Jarvis is covering it (with a link to Austin Bay included). Harry's Place covers it in a number of posts. Go here and here to start. Norm Geras also has a bit on it.

Here is something I sent to Norm:

Nice bit of work.

Still the adherence to socialism seems to me similar to Einstein's rejection of quantum mechanics. True socialism is a much prettier economic theory than
capitalism. The problem is it doesn't work.

Marx understood the problem well. Capitalism is necessary to create the capital that socialism intends to re-distribute. Full socialism will only be possible when capitalism is no longer profitable.

In the mean time the greater the inequality the faster the progress to socialism.

In other words all real socialists should be as much
as possible free market capitalists. The less capitalism is hindered by socialist policies the more wealth there will be at some future point.

It is very difficult to sacrifice today for tomorrow. Especially for socialists.

BTW if you really want to make poverty history read DeSoto. He says that the problem is government not money. I have a short introduction to DeSoto with links here:

Property.

As you know DeSoto is from Peru. His basic premise is that poor people are poor because they are shut out of the property system. It is not property that is bad
but the lack of it.

M. Simon

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Euston Manifesto, Progressive Politics, Principled Left, Socialism, Property, Iraq War, Property, DeSoto, Poverty, Iran, Liberation, Wealth,