Capitalism; Imperialism; Saving and investment; Socialism
At a certain level, capitalist development thus has the tendency to
impede its own progress. These obstacles are ultimately due to the fact
that progressive labour productivity, involving the severance of the
immediate producer from the means of production, does not benefit
society as a whole, but only the individual entrepreneur; and the mass
of labour power and men-hours which has been 'set free' by this process
becomes redundant and thus is not only lost to society but will become a
burden to it. The real wants of the masses can only be satisfied more
fully in so far as there can be an ascendancy of a 'populist' mode of
production based upon the union between the producer and his means of
production. It is the aim of capitalism, however, to gain possession of
just these spheres of production, and to destroy in the process the main
factor which makes for its own prosperity. The periodical famines in
India, for instance, recurring at intervals of ten or eleven years, were
thus among the causes of periodical industrial crises in England. Any
nation that sets out on capitalist development will sooner or later come
up against these contradictions inherent in this mode of production. And
the later a nation embarks on the capitalist venture, the more strongly
will these contradictions make themselves felt, since, once the home
market has been saturated, no substitute can be found, the outside
market having already been conquered by the older competing countries.
The upshot of it all is that the limits of capitalism are set by the
increasing poverty born of its own development, by the increasing number
of redundant workers deficient in all purchasing power. Increasing
labour productivity which can rapidly satisfy every effective demand of
society corresponds to the increasing incapacity of ever broader masses
of the population to satisfy their most vital needs; on the one hand, a
glut of goods that cannot be sold--and on the other, large masses who
lack the bare necessities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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