Path: utzoo!hoptoad!vixie!paul
From: paul@vixie.UUCP (Paul Vixie Esq)
Newsgroups: alt.individualism
Subject: Re: Economics and Individualism (Too Long)
Keywords: consumption individual economy
Message-ID: <860@vixie.UUCP>
Date: 6 Apr 88 16:22:54 GMT
References: <3714@dasys1.UUCP>
Reply-To: paul@vixie.UUCP (Paul Vixie Esq)
Distribution: alt
Organization: Vixie Enterprises, San Francisco
Lines: 26

In article <3714@dasys1.UUCP> gf@dasys1.UUCP (G Fitch) writes:
# 
# The economy we live in is driven by consumption.  The desire to
# acquire products and services is what encourages people to work
# and invest, thereby making possible the production of surplus
# labor value which, as capital, feeds further expansion of the
# economy.  [...]
#

You begin with Marx's premises and definitions, and you end with Marx's
conclusions -- no surprise.  I wonder if you are aware of his influence,
or whether his ideas are so pervasive that you got ahold of them without
knowing their source?

The whole "surplus labor value" idea is basically bunk.  If you start from
this premise, only utter totalitarian communism makes sense.

I'm not an economist, but I can get one for you if you want to discuss this
further.  And, yes, this discussion DOES belong in a group about individualism,
since Marxism is one of the most anti-individualist (anti-*man*, really)
political theories ever described.
-- 
Paul A Vixie Esq
paul%vixie@uunet.uu.net
{uunet,ptsfa,hoptoad}!vixie!paul
San Francisco, (415) 647-7023