Capitalism doesn’t work: the 1930s proved that. Communism doesn’t work: the 1980s proved that. So what works? Socialism—of the democratic variety, of course. But, viewed concretely, as it is applied in practice, what is socialism today? The answer is—the mixed …
Glut is the four-letter word that has plagued capitalism from the moment of its birth. It is an endemic disease that turns epidemic when ignored. It started several centuries ago in Europe. Today it is global, threatening the economic and …
Free trade is a myth. It does not exist; it never did exist, with the possible and limited exception of a brief period when Britain practiced it as well as preached it to expand its near-monopoly over world manufacture. It …
New York’s economy is divided into three parts: upper, lower, and under. The first two—upper and lower—are old hat, retailored now to fit the service economy. The third—the underground economy—has moved from being a pest to being a pestilence. In …
Without fanfare, in the recession summer of 1982, the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO appointed a special committee to “review and evaluate changes that are taking place in America in the labor force, occupations, industries, and technology.” Who would have …
Among all the uncertainties of current politics in America, one event—I think—is certain. In the elections of 1986 the Democrats will score a victory: they will increase their majority in the House of Representatives and will capture the Senate. The …
I should like to argue with Norman Thomas who, I will assume, is present in absentia. As Irving Howe said earlier, in Norman Thomas’s later years, this celebrated socialist leader concluded that his career had been a failure. So I say …
What do unions do? They cause inflation, unemployment, low productivity, and inequality. Hence, what they do is bad. How? The high wages that unions impose cause inflation. The same high wages discourage employers from hiring workers, thereby causing unemployment. Union …
American radicals have lived with and by a mischievous mythology built around the proletariat, the system, and the vanguard. That is the essence of a complex, convoluted, and clever book by Aileen S. Kraditor, professor emerita of history at Boston …
You probably didn’t notice because it was just a small item on a back page in a few papers and was totally absent in most papers and in the electronic media. But this datum tells us just about everything we …
In a persuasive tract, Free to Choose (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979), Milton and Rose Friedman propound an economic system that does not exist, never has existed, and is unlikely ever to exist except in the fantasies of authors who perceive …
A not-so-simple Simon says that now is A Time for Truth, the “truth” as a present-day conservative sees it. In this facile, freeswinging book (published by McGraw-Hill in 1978), William Simon, former secretary of the treasury under Nixon and Ford, …
The current interest in “corporate responsibility” arises from a mounting concern over tensions in our society and from a recognition of the decisive role corporations play in our lives. In the next decade, there will undoubtedly be considerable movement by …
“It’s us they is always chokin’ so that the rich folks can stay fat.” —A 28-year-old Kentucky miner on the “freeze.” New York Times, September 24, 1971 What are the facts about the American workers—especially white workers? Of the 77.902 …
Can the American system, which does fairly well at accommodating political or economic conflicts, handle a cultural battle, which begins to shape up more and more like the pointlessly violent strife of hostile religions sects?” So asked the Wall Street …
