THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NEO-LIBERAL STATE.
May 2, 2020 7 Comments
In today’s Financial Times, an article titled “Consultants Under Fire Over Speed of Contracts” is critical of the UK government’s outsourcing of critical responses to controlling the pandemic. The lack of capacity in the state forced the cabinet to rely on the Big Four Accountancy firms and McKinsey for building hospitals and sourcing equipment. Call them intensive care accountants. None of these contracts were tendered, no value was put on them, nor was there any disclosure of the fees paid despite the 30 days disclosure period having elapsed. This pandemic has revealed the limitations of the neo-liberal state and its vulnerability to extortion.
In war and in sickness, there is always money to be made by the connected capitalists.
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I must make one thing clear and that is I don’t know enough about the nature of the economic system in the USSR. Was there exploitation in terms of unpaid labor? I’m open to the idea. Now let’s extend that beyond the borders. Was USSR also an imperialist transferring unpaid labor from its sphere of influence?
Indeed what you have been predicting is coming true. “And they will hold China responsible, whipping up anti-China feelings through twisting what happened, a development which is already escalating dramatically becoming more fraught with each passing day.
For these reasons we need to learn how to organise under conditions of lock-down so that we are not forced-down as soon as the pandemic ebbs.”
As New York Times puts it “calls for inquiries and reparations spread …”. Deflect and turn the anger towards China to cover up their own ineptness. Forecast for the US Q2 is somewhere between -17% to -37% (Atlanta Fed). Who better than China to blame for the disaster?
Lumpens are toting their guns in some places in the US hoping to recruit. President of the country refers to these armed thugs are “very good people”. So yes they are preparing. These thugs can be used to counter any movement capital sees as a threat.
Hi Cameron,
Starting off with a bit of humour. This is what I put on my Facebook page alongside the armed right-wing protestors. “Their idea of Personal Protection Equipment is a semi-automatic carbine. Not the most appropriate protection in the middle of a pandemic.”
I have written so much about exploitation in the USSR. Yes their was unpaid labour. This was made possible by the rampant inflation in the first five year plan which reduced living standards and created the space for the tax and later tax and profit margins through which the state claimed this unpaid labour. The general law can be described as follows: in any productive society based on margins, workers will produce unpaid labour, expressed by the presence of these margins. However, workers were so to speak, exploited in advance, when the planning bodies allocated the wage fund and the state budget prior to the next round of production. In capitalism, because the labour of the individual only becomes part of the labour of society through exchange, the realisation of profits happens in arrears when the capitalists are paid for the labour of their workers.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the reply. I didn’t know about your Facebook page though I don’t do Facebook anyways.
I think my question was not clear so I’m going to pose it in a different way. In capitalism value is transferred from the periphery to the imperialist center, through transfer pricing, international trade, and capital flows. How did the USSR transfer unpaid labor from the so called Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland, Romania, etc.? I’m not assume that it did so but if it did how did it accomplish that?
Thank you.
I am not sure Cameron. I think it was the other way around. I think labour was transferred from Russia to the rest of Comecon, not the other way around. I have never researched the subject though.
Your following remark is spot on about US China tensions. According to the South China Morning Post report yesterday, Beijing is preparing for armed conflict. The best indicator is if China ramps up armament production circa the USA from 1941 onwards.
BTW, this by Reuters: “As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers”.
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