I’m clearly no economist so maybe I’m missing something obvious, but I cannot wrap my head around why so many believe that the market is just some sort of fundamental, unchangeable property of the universe that is and always will be. Why do we assume that the dollar will always be valuable?
I could be incorrect, but it seems like there is no guarantee that there will be a rebound after a crash (see: 2008). It more so just seems like parts of capital crumble and become inaccessible to people who once had access, thus causing complete inaccessibility for all who come after.
So, boom and bust seems like the greatest misnomer of all time.
Historically, busts help clear up so-called dead capital. Capital that's tied up in unproductive business or literally just mothballed. Or in a war, some of it is literally just blown up.
A bust helps to concentrate and allow capital to move again, this can lead to a boom again or at least induce a counter tendency to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall.
But there are inherent contradictions to capitalism that cannot be overcome by the system and a bust can turn into am apocalyptic disruption that can allow revolution. The 30s is the usual one we think of, globalization and Super Imperialism helped that out along with ww2. There was also the long depression in the 1800s that mightve as well and was overcome by imperialism on a mass scale and the looting of Africa.
And you're right to point out 2008 because we never really recovered after it, traditionally capital needs a good war and to allow firms to bankrupt but neoliberalism and nuclear weapons make its traditional solutions untenable (also, the fact that globalization has reached its zenith and there is essentially nowhere for capital to expand to anymore that it already hasn't plugged in to the system). The bourgeoisie will not allow any bankruptcy anymore lol, most large business are zombie businesses (that can only afford interest om debt, not even paying it down) and banks/deposits are now guaranteed by the state no matter what risks they take. Also, climate change and its attendant second order effects like refugee migrations and pandemics are not something capitalism can handle, like, at all.
You can think of the "health" of capitalism (the rate of profit or what have you) like a great big arc, with a little sine wave wobble as it goes from the beginning of capitalism and to its inevitable end where it cannot last. The end is its big final crisis, which probably won't be an orgiastic conflict or revolution but maybe just a whimper as it withdraws to its global cities and nation-states dissolve as they are no longer able to be supported by a capitalist mode of production.
Not to be crass, but this really made me think of refractory period and masturbation. Boom and BUST of capital is just jerking off. The hype gets stronger and stronger until somehow a big mess is made of things, usually before any of the players quite know what is happening. Capital on the edge is just 'irrational exuberance'. Then there is the post-bust clarity. This is when the libs all start wiping away the stickiness of the situation, trying to do apologia for capital.
Which obviously leads into the next phase of lib fluffing of the spongy wreckage.
paging VolCel vanguard btw
:volcel-judge: You did the right thing turning yourself in.
I think you did a great job of putting into words what I cannot. It just seems to get worse and worse with each passing crash/consolidation of everything into a few people’s hands and absolutely dread thinking about what the world will look like in 20 years with climate catastrophe on the horizon