Surplus Value, The Falling Rate of Profit, Economic Crises & Oregon

I talk a great deal on this blog about falling rates of profit, economic crises and what we experience here in Oregon. I recently raised the possibility that we could be looking at a period of real deflation, controlled or not. A co-worker and friend who has forgotten more about economics than I will ever know and I talked about it and he convinced me that I may be wrong about deflation. But when we talked about monopolization in the milk-products industry and the relative declines in the rates of profit in that sector and related sectors and the overall economic crisis--also subjects I've taken up recently--it appeared that I may be right about capitalist crises and their impact on at least some basic food supplies and markets.

Does this talk bore you or give you a headache? Listen, if I can figure it out and have fun with it--so can you.

Go to the surplus Value website here and begin learning. This is what proves at the most basic levels where the Republicans and the hate radio deejays are wrong. They never allow a debate about these basic capitalist contradictions--they never even mention it.

This has special implications in Oregon. The right is trying to convince people that socialists have taken over and that socialism is evil--without ever explaining what socialism is or how either capitalism or socialism work at their most basic levels. Since Oregon has both rural and urban regional economies, a large public sector, high unemployment and an increasingly polarized electorate these basic questions should matter to us.

Capitalism is either in crisis or it isn't. It will either emerge from the present crisis and meet human needs and provide incentives for upward mobility and enable upward mobility or it won't. It either moves from one crisis to the next or it doesn't. Democracy will either thrive or die when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few.

A planned economy built and governed by working people is either possible or it isn't. Production can either be turned to meeting human needs or it can't be. Democracy will either expand and take on new meaning and prospects in the hands of "regular" people engaged in social transformation or it will wither and die in our hands.

These are "yes" or "no" questions and millions of people are looking for their answers. This link has some of the basic economic explanations we need to get the proper handle on what's facing us.