Unravelling Capitalism by Joseph Choonara

Author:Joseph Choonara
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910885468
Publisher: Bookmarks

In other words, attack workers to boost profits, try to survive the recession and then buy up your rivals as they go under.

The detail of each cycle is different, so to understand each crisis it is necessary to wade through the statistics, data and commentary produced by mainstream economists and government agencies. But it is also important to grasp that boom and bust are based on problems intrinsic to capitalism rather than external factors. The “stop-go” pattern is also a feature of the system when it is in a reasonably healthy state. So during the long boom of the 1950s and 1960s, often referred to as the “golden age” of capitalism, there were still cycles in which the economy grew and then slowed down, even if these were less destructive than at other times.

Sometimes the kind of crisis required to restore the system to “health” is very severe indeed. The rate of profit might be partially restored in a crisis, but usually not to its rate during the preceding boom. So, while profits rise and fall during the cycle, the average profit rate can decline from cycle to cycle, as happened in the period after the Second World War as the organic composition of capital grew steadily over two decades. A full restoration of profit rates might require a very serious crisis, for instance the deep slump of the 1930s, which saw the destruction of vast amounts of capital through economic collapse and global war. Only this, together with the increased state control of economies as they armed for and engaged in the war, could pave the way for a recovery of the rate of profit and provide the basis for a new boom.

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