Jaajef Hamjatta,
It may well be, as you say, " Herculean to prescribe a credible and
workable alternative" to capitalism, but what choice do we have? The
article certainly shows that even with a very successful economy, an
"enlightened" leadership (well there is a debate about whether the
Clinton administration is enlightened or not, but it is probably more
towards "compassionate and regulated liberal economics" than the
Regan "market fundamentalism/radicalism") capitalism is still failing to
deliver the goods to the majority of it's citizens.
If this is the case in the most "advanced" capitalist country what
prospect is there of capitalism providing a solution to the problems
facing countries like Gambia?
Your vision of a model of Capitalism being " benign, compassionate and
regulated" is all very well, except the reality (especially as applies to
Africa) is probably more in line with Amadou Kabir Nijie's recent posting
on the diamond trade in Sierra Leone.
Don't get me wrong, I am not an economist and do not have a solution
"to hand". I have read Saiks's response to you on this, and I no longer
understand, in practical, concrete terms what is meant by "socialism" as
a model.
Maybe we should be debating in more precise, and in a less sloganistic
way, about economic models which would actually provide solutions to
the problems we are facing.
Right now there are people gambling on the futures markets,
speculating and making money from the Gambian groundnut harvest in
the year 2005, whilst the producers become the pawns in the game. In
fact these speculators would be well pleased if there was a drought or
disease effecting the crop as it would push prices (and their profits)
higher... how insane! How in the light of this do we find solutions, move
forward and develop?
For me, the problem with statements like yours when you ask " whether
there is a credible alternative to capitalism?" is that it reminds me of the
fatalism and complacency expressed by Pangloss (Voltaire's Candide)
when he states that this is "the best of all possible worlds".
In reality we can't afford to be complacent that there is no alternative,
surely an essential part of what makes us human is the striving towards
new knowledge and finding new solutions?
Yeendul ak jaama
Tony
>>> Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]> 13/January/2000 07:51pm
>>>
Tony,
Thanks for forwarding this piece. It made an interesting reading.
Another
example of how things have yet to be better the way we expect to
under
capitalism.
I just want to ask whether there is a credible alternative to capitalism?
It is very easy to expose the shortcomings of turbo capitalism but
Herculean
to cite credible and practical alternatives. The beauty about capitalism
(by
capitalism I shall refer to it here to mean as compassionate and
regulated
liberal economics and not market fundamentalism/radicalism associated
with
the neo-liberals of the early 80's) is that it is progressive: it harnesses
the full potentials of an able individual. An individual/family at the bottom
of the ladder say in 1980, could be classified as middle class or even
upper
class nouveau riche 1999.
Capitalism benign, compassionate and regulated could bring out the
best
in man. It is precisely this that Marx overlooked in his analysis capitalism:
that it (capitalism) could reinvent itself according to the moods that suits
a particular time. So it is easy to diagnose capitalism's swashbuckling
proclivities, but Herculean to prescribe a credible and workable
alternative.
This reminds me what the Historian Louis Namier said of Marx: that he
got the
diagnosis right but with the prescription went wide off the mark. Marx
was
fuller of truth but mistaken.
Good day to you.
Hamjatta Kanteh
hkanteh
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