#branko milanovic

[yayfeminism]

Increasing commodification means that much of our personal space and private actions have become potential money-makers. Birthday parties, reunion dinners, theaters, are occasions to meet people who may turn out to be useful and to “network.” (Museums openly advertise vernissages as occasions to network.) Our “dead capitals,” private time or homes, have become commercialized opportunities: we can drive own car for profit or rent own apartments for monetary gain. Being alone provides a respite from such incessant commodification. You do not network with yourself.

"The World Under Capitalism: Observations on Economics, Politics, History, and Culture" by Branko Milanovic

[eelhound]

"The problem with suggesting that there is no alternative to hypercommercialized capitalism is that it implies that, because [an] author cannot imagine an alternative, an alternative cannot exist...

Milanovic suggests that for capitalism to end, someone would have to come up with an alternative that would both work and be agreed upon. However, that is not how capitalism began, and so it need not be how it ends. When capitalism began in Europe, commenters were at first shocked by what was occurring. In the early seventeenth century, René Descartes (on the dockside in Amsterdam) wrote, 'In this great city where I am living, with no man apart from myself not being involved in trade, everyone is so intent on his profits that I could spend my whole life without being seen by anyone.' ...

Today, I could write the following true statement: 'In this great world where I am living, with hardly any people profiting more than marginally through trade, everyone is so concerned about the state of the world and the future of their children that I can now spend my whole life meeting no one who thinks this is how we should live.' I could point out that a majority of people in the United States and UK expect their children to be worse off than them and that this is new; or that in the most equitable countries in the world, such as Finland, people are also the happiest. I could explain that in some of the most inequitable nations, such as Chile, children and university students have overthrown what appeared to be an unbreakable orthodoxy.

I could describe the waves of environmental protest that have exploded in almost every country on Earth in the last twenty years; the rapidly widening understanding of colonial exploitation and racism; the increasing skepticism about the sustainability of economic growth; and the heartfelt desire of so many for their children to live better lives with less work, less destructive consumption, and more leisure. I am old enough to remember that these were all no more than fringe issues two decades ago. But I cannot tell you what will happen next. I can only point out that so much is now happening that ignoring all these changes is foolhardy...

The system is changing, but that change has only just begun. Because we cannot see the future, there will always be a few who argue that what we have is the best we can expect. However, never before have so many people been so dissatisfied with what we have, what we have become, and where we are heading. You must have an incredibly dismal view of both human agency and human nature to believe that we will continue to live in the future much as we live today, or to believe that the accumulation of personal wealth will forever be the key marker of individual success."

- Danny Dorling, from "Capitalist Inequality Won’t Last Forever." Jacobin, 16 October 2022.

[abismal]

If you can’t believe the iceberg post on the social uprising in Chile, just take a look what this economist says. (He used to work on the World Bank).

[yayfeminism]

'The fact that rich people fund the campaigns, pay politicians (which is just a more subtle form of bribery), and control most of the mainstream media, makes mockery of political equality.

We have to acknowledge that the term “democracy” has been hijacked by the neoliberal plutocracy in the same way that the term “people” was hijacked by the communist authorities in Eastern Europe. Both terms are used to cover up the reality.

Instead, the paleo-left should focus on something much more real and measurable: approximate political equality. The latter implies public financing of political campaigns, limits (or bans) on rich people’s control of the mass media (no Washington Post ownership for Jeff Bezos), and equal participation in the electoral process, which in turn means making participation in the elections easier for hard-working people. '

"The World Under Capitalism: Observations on Economics, Politics, History, and Culture" by Branko Milanovic

[abismal]

Branko Milanovic on Chile.

[yayfeminism]

China wants to be different. In a society of political capitalism, as I argued in Capitalism, Alone, the state tries to maintain its autonomy. In the United States, the state generally acts as a custodian of the capitalist interest “managing the common affairs of the bourgeoisie.” In political capitalism, though, the state must not allow itself to be co-opted or “contaminated” by capitalist interest. In other words, capitalist interest is one of the interests to consider—but not the only one, or even perhaps not the chief one. This approach is consistent with the long Chinese tradition of the state keeping merchant and capitalist interests at arm’s length. Ho-fung Hung, for example, nicely describes in The China Boom: Why China Will not Rule the World, how Qing bureaucracy sided in industrial disputes with workers, and not with “masters,” as was commonly the case in the Britain in the nineteenth century.

The World Under Capitalism: Observations on Economics, Politics, History, and Culture by Branko Milanovic

[alanshemper]

good ep

On Communism’s historic role.

We talk to renowned Serbian-American economist Branko Milanovic about growing up in Yugoslavia and how, in much of the world, History never ended. We then dedicate much of the episode to discussing Branko’s claim that communism was essentially an engine of economic convergence, allowing developing countries to haul themselves into the industrial age.

We also talk about Branko’s work on inequality and why growth still matters.