Volume 52, Number 1
May 2000
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| Volume 52, Number 1 |
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| May 2000 |
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MONTHLY REVIEW’S April 2000
March 2000
February
2000
January 2000
December
1999
November
1999
October 1999
September July-August June
1999 May
1999 |
c o n t e n t s REVIEW OF THE MONTH It is an old axiom, common to both Marxian and Keynesian economics, that uneven, class-based distribution of income is a determining factor of consumption and investment. How much is spent for consumption goods depends on the income of the working class. Workers necessarily spend almost all of their income on consumption, with relatively little left over for savings or investment. Capitalists, on the other hand, spend only a small percentage of their income for personal consumption. The overwhelming proportion of the income of capitalists and their corporations is devoted to investment. It follows that increasing inequality in income and wealth can be expected to create the age-old contradiction of capitalism: on the one hand, sluggish consumer demand narrows the marketability of the goods that capital needs to sell; on the other, profitable investment opportunities depend ultimately on vigorous growth in the effective demand for consumer goods. It is not possible—in the words of the early-twentieth-century U.S. economist J. B. Clark—simply to "build more mills that should make more mills for ever" in the absence of sufficient consumer demand for the products created by these mills More Form than Substance: Press
The mainstream U.S. news media have been shifting rightward for at least two decades, as their corporate owners enforce tighter ideological conformity. Oliver North and Pat Buchanan, for example, are now regular commentators on television talk shows. And all of the media now refer to people as "consumers," cogs in a capitalist machine. But still, news is less than half as profitable as entertainment, and media firms are intensifying pressures on their "news properties" for higher profits, which means the pursuit of upscale demographics. Owners are removing journalism's much-vaunted separation of newsroom practices and business decisions, blurring the line between news and entertainment, and forming partnerships with one another to offer online news services. As William Glaberson said in the New York Times in July 1995, "It is now common for publishing executives to press journalists to cooperate with their newspapers' `business side,' breaching separations that were said in the past to be essential for journalistic integrity." How the United States Exports
In December 1999, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize winner from South Africa, gave the keynote address for an important conference in Miami Beach: the International Summit of Managed Care. The price for attending this conference, excluding travel, room, and meals, was $1395. The conference, sponsored by the American Association of Health Plans and the Academy for International Health Studies, was targeted at "chief executive officers, presidents, board chairs, chief financial officers, directors of marketing, and business development officers." In addition to Archbishop Tutu, ostensibly progressive participants at the meeting included former Congressman Ron Dellums, whose legislative efforts for a U.S. national health service have inspired health activists since the mid-1970s. Dellums took part in his new role as president of Healthcare International Management. Why Socialism? CORRESPONDENCE Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin
Reply BOOK
REVIEW |
f e a t u r e d “A bold, exciting interpretation of
the historical background and context of Marx's ecological thought and a
fascinating exploration of environmental history. Should be of interest to all
who care about the fate of our ‘vulnerable planet.’ ” |
| May 1998 |
Overcoming the predatory phase Why Socialism? Is it advisable for one who is not an
expert on economic and social issues to express views on the subject of
socialism? I believe for a number of reasons that it is... |
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| March 1998 |
The New Imperialism Human Rights
Imperialism "'Human Rights' has been for a
generation the chosen battlefield of U.S. worldwide propaganda. The United
States, which imprisons a much larger percentage of its population than any
other country, routinely sets itself up as the universal arbiter of human
rights..." |
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| September 1998
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"A masquerade of ideas..." A Report from
Minsk "Counter-revolution and social regress will not be advocated openly by those who seek to benefit by them, not even to themselves; and now we can all see that under the mask "open society" lay the plunder of billions of dollars at a speculative shot, starving pensioners, tuberculosis epidemics, and death." |
Editors: If you have any |
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