Political economic analysis book from 1984 ; US capitalism was in crisis…it got out of crisis by looting the Soviet Union and West Asia

2 BACKGROUND TO CRISIS Many specific causes help ta uses done tetely, phenomena Vie must try condederanas the workings of a car. But the way a ond must aye understands the workin, they acer; Butthese phenomena are charie parate and independent, they artierelated. Together, they constitute a comprehensexpelse a proting the whole US. economy. Basically, this crisis expresses a process of decay in US. capitalism. If we wish to understand the crisis well, not just partially and superficially, we must begin with a preliminary discussion of fundamentals. What is capitalism? Under what phase of capital. ism's development are we now living and how does this affect the workings of the economy? How have the enormous U.S. military expenditures helped produce the process of decay? LENIN GIVES A clear, simple definition of capitalism: Capitalism is the name given to that social system under which the land, factories, implements, etc. belong to a small number of landed proprietors and capitalists, while the mass of the people possesses no property, or very little property, and is compelled to hire itself out as workers. The landowners and factory owners hire workers and make them produce wares of this or that kind which they sell on the market.? This very nature of capitalism gives rise to contradictions. The most fundamental, the one which most broadly explains the workings of capitalism, is the contradiction between the social nature of production and the private form of ownership. Production under capitalism is social. The goods we use (food, clothing, autos, etc.) are not the product of individuals, but social. products, the result of the collaboration of countless workers. People work together in large enterprises, using materials and equipment produced by others, and producing goods for use by others. The economy is marked by an extensive and complex division of labor. But the means of production are privately owned. The process of production is privately controlled, and the products of production are privately appropriated-they belong to the capitalists. Why are social production and private ownership contradictory? Because each has its own logic and requirements which are incona; pa sole with those of the other; because a process of production that i social cannot be properly manased and controlled under a system of ownership that is private. For example: An economy rivate developed division of labor.