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Ayn Marx 06-07-2022 03:41 PM

Given not everyone is as startlingly erudite as your good self :-
Malthusianism is the idea that population growth is potentially exponential while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population die off.

TheBig3 06-08-2022 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland (Post 2206774)
It's a pretty good point if we accept the parasitic nature of capitalism to be inherent to human nature and therefore unchangeable.

How are you defining capitalism in this case?

I only ask because I'm currently reading The Mushroom at the End of the World, and the author suggests that markets alone don't make capitalism, it requires investment. It's a poorly written book (because economists can't write) but the subject matter is interesting, and she's a Left-wing economist endorsed by Adam Tooze so you might enjoy it.

Frownland 06-08-2022 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3 (Post 2206838)
How are you defining capitalism in this case?

In the Marxist sense (who has underrated writing style btw).

Quote:

I only ask because I'm currently reading The Mushroom at the End of the World, and the author suggests that markets alone don't make capitalism, it requires investment. It's a poorly written book (because economists can't write) but the subject matter is interesting, and she's a Left-wing economist endorsed by Adam Tooze so you might enjoy it.
I generally agree with that but think it's more important to note the violent foundations of the power imbalance between those who can make such investments and those who are exploited by them.

TheBig3 06-08-2022 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland (Post 2206840)
I generally agree with that but think it's more important to note the violent foundations of the power imbalance between those who can make such investments and those who are exploited by them.

Well then you might love Mushroom, violence in capitalism is a solid portion of the book.

jwb 06-08-2022 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elphenor (Post 2206768)
here we go again with this

it's not raised anymore because anyone serious realized how catastrophically unethical any population control measures would be

lucky for us, birth rates fall in developed countries, meaning the answer to this problem, (insofar as you want to see it that way) like so many other problems, is a more equitable world

actually i think it's not mentioned mostly because that book made all sorts of outlandish predictions that never happened... If I'm thinking of the right book anyway that's what i heard

These days decreasing birth rates pose a bigger problem than overpopulation in much of the world.... China is going to be extra ****ed because they put in that one child policy largely in reaction to this hype and it backfired. Now they have reversed it and still can't convince most Chinese people to have more than one kid because it's become culturally ingrained

jadis 06-09-2022 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3 (Post 2206838)
How are you defining capitalism in this case?

I only ask because I'm currently reading The Mushroom at the End of the World, and the author suggests that markets alone don't make capitalism, it requires investment. It's a poorly written book (because economists can't write) but the subject matter is interesting, and she's a Left-wing economist endorsed by Adam Tooze so you might enjoy it.

Never read her but FWIW Tsing is an anthropologist, and those have a reputation for being great writers (at least the two most famous anthropologists of the 20th century, Margaret Mead and Claude Lévi-Strauss, were famously great writers). Though of course there's no universal standard, some would say Lévi-Strauss wrote in unintelligible jargon etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland (Post 2206840)
In the Marxist sense (who has underrated writing style btw).

I love the 18th Brumaire and the other texts where he's in a more essayistic and aphoristic mode but the Capital is tough going for my humanities-addled brain, doubt I'll ever push myself through it from beginning to end.

TheBig3 06-09-2022 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadis (Post 2206914)
Never read her but FWIW Tsing is an anthropologist, and those have a reputation for being great writers (at least the two most famous anthropologists of the 20th century, Margaret Mead and Claude Lévi-Strauss, were famously great writers). Though of course there's no universal standard, some would say Lévi-Strauss wrote in unintelligible jargon etc.

She sort of does that. She didn't appear to have an editor (that did any work) she suffers from Academese, and she goes off on these semi- to completely unrelated tangents. Why John Cage comes up AT ALL is based on the title of one of his works?

It does make for a better Anthro book, and I think I'd be less hostile toward it if it had been labeled that way. The story of the matsutake pickers is fascinating though.

Frownland 06-09-2022 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jadis (Post 2206914)
I love the 18th Brumaire and the other texts where he's in a more essayistic and aphoristic mode but the Capital is tough going for my humanities-addled brain, doubt I'll ever push myself through it from beginning to end.

The biggest thing for me is his repetitiveness but whenever he goes off on the imagery of capital's metamorphoses or sassy takedowns of classical economists, it's good ****.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3 (Post 2206952)
She sort of does that. She didn't appear to have an editor (that did any work) she suffers from Academese, and she goes off on these semi- to completely unrelated tangents. Why John Cage comes up AT ALL is based on the title of one of his works?

Cage was a dedicated mycologist who had a capitalist critique or two himself, so it's not that surprising.

TheBig3 06-09-2022 07:11 PM

Look, can't you just let me ****ing hate John Cage?

Frownland 06-09-2022 07:33 PM

Of course not.


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