Capitalism; Imperialism; Saving and investment; Socialism
Having thus 'employed' Marx's 'logical' version of Ricardo's theory of
value, Vorontsov arrives at Sismondi's theory of crises which he adopts
in as crude and simplified a form as possible. He believes, of course,
that he is adopting the views of Rodbertus in reproducing those of
Sismondi. 'The inductive method of research', he declares triumphantly,
'has resulted in the very same theory of crises and of pauperism which
had been objectively stated by Rodbertus.'[285]
It is not quite clear what Vorontsov means by an 'inductive method of
research' which he contrasts with the objective method--since all things
are possible to Vorontsov, he may conceivably mean Marx's theory. Yet
Rodbertus, too, was not to emerge unimproved from the hands of the
original Russian thinker. Vorontsov corrects Rodbertus' theory merely in
so far as he eliminates the stabilisation of the wage rate in accordance
with the value of the aggregate product which, to Rodbertus, had been
the pivot of his whole system. According to Vorontsov, this measure
against crises is a mere palliative, since 'the immediate cause of the
above phenomena (over-production, unemployment, etc.) is not that the
working classes receive too small a share of the national income, but
that the capitalist class cannot possibly consume all the products which
every year fall to their share.'[286]
Yet, as soon as he has refuted Rodbertus' reform of the distribution of
incomes, Vorontsov, with that 'strictly logical' consistency so peculiar
to him, ultimately arrives at the following forecast for the future
destiny of capitalism: 'If industrial organisation which prevails in W.
Europe is to prosper and flourish further still, it can only do so
provided that some means will be found to destroy [_verbatim_--R. L.]
that portion of the national income which falls to the capitalists'
share over and above their capacity to consume. The simplest solution of
this problem will be an appropriate change in the distribution of the
aggregate income among those who take part in production. If the
entrepreneurs would retain for themselves only so much of all increase
of the national income as they need to satisfy all their whims and
fancies, leaving the remainder to the working class, the mass of the
people, then the régime of capitalism would be assured for a long time
to come.'[287]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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