Sunday, May 31, 2009

Money Swears

Over at the Brooklyn Rail Paul Mattick argues for the end of money:
if the whole financial system fell away, and money ceased to be the power source turning the wheels of production, the whole productive apparatus of society—machines, raw materials, and above all working people—would still be there, along with the human needs it can be made to serve. The fewer years of suffering and confusion it takes for people to figure this out, the better.
If you can't spend it money just becomes paper and metal. You can't eat it. You can't drink it. What is the point of it? Okay, you could set fire to it to keep yourself warm. But how long would that last.

Thanks to the ever perspicacious Will Rubbish.

7 comments:

Will said...

Robert Kurz
DEFLATION UND INFLATION

http://www.exit-online.org/druck.php?tabelle=autoren&posnr=393

Indem nun die Staaten dazu übergehen, direkt die Notenpresse anzuwerfen, um das deflationäre Desaster aufzufangen, bereiten sie einen neuen großen Inflationsschub vor, der das Geld überhaupt als allgemeines kapitalistisches „Lebensmittel“ radikal entwertet. Die tiefere Ursache besteht darin, dass die 3. industrielle Revolution die „Arbeitssubstanz“ aller Aggregatzustände des „Werts“ in einem nie dagewesenen Maße ausgehöhlt hat. Deshalb steuert das Weltkapital auf eine Situation zu, in der sich nicht mehr Inflation und Deflation ablösen, sondern alle Wertformen gleichermaßen und gleichzeitig entwertet werden: Arbeitskraft, Produktionskapital, Warenkapital, Kreditkapital und Geld als übergreifendes Medium. Die Menschheit steht vor der Frage, ob sie mangels Verwertungsmöglichkeit freiwillig aufhört zu leben oder ob sie Schluss macht mit der „auf dem Wert beruhenden Produktionsweise“ (Marx).

Last para translated:

Now that States advance directly to the printing of notes to absorb the disaster of deflation, they are preparing a big new surge of inflation, that will radically devalue money in general as the universal capitalist medium of life. The deep cause is that the 3rd industrial revolution devalued, in an unprecedented way, the "labor substance" of all phases of "value". Because of that, global capital moves toward a situation in which inflation and deflation no longer alternate, but in which all forms of value are equally and simultaneously devalued: labor power, industrial capital, commodity capital, credit capital and money as all-embracing medium. Humanity confronts the question of knowing whether to voluntarily cease living due to lack of possibilities of valorization, or whether to put an end to the "mode of production based on value" (Marx).

See also the interview with Postone here (linked to)

http://www.gentheoryrubbish.com/2009/04/labor_and_the_logic_of_abstrac_1.html

Neil said...

Cheers.

Imposs1904 said...

Do you know what pisses me off about Brooklyn Rail?

That you have to travel into Manhattan to find a hard copy. I can't find it anywhere in my Brooklyn neighbourhood. I guess it's not hipsterish enough.

Getting rid of money? Sounds good. I'll have to investigate it further.

Imposs1904 said...

PS

Apologies for being a bastard pedant, but it's Paul Mattick Jr. Trust me, it's important to point that out.

I'm surprised that the editorial offices of Brooklyn Rail haven't already been attacked by an angry mob of pissed of council communists over this heinous mistake.

Neil said...

I'll have to google Paul Mattick Snr then!

Imposs1904 said...

Sr got a nifty page over at the Marxist Internet Archive:

The original Paul Mattick

Anonymous said...

Interesting for me//
/