What is a commodity?

[kenneth.mackendrick]

In order for any kind of "socialism" to work first a coherent idea of what socialism 
is would be necessary.  Should it be run by the government? How is this 
government to be constituted?  What form shall law take?  How will the law be 
enforced?  And back again - how does this debate itself repeat the same problems 
that already exist unknowingly.

Your final comments in (1) really do point toward a kind of anarchist-affinity 
collective - but it seems that the focus on being realistic or pragmatic also has the 
danger of supporting the status quo.  "Pension funds should be state-guaranteed" - 
still leaves the state intact with its dependence upon coercion as the "force of law" 
backed by "reason."  There are a lot of problems with state-run programs - 
motivational, distributional, etc (even when they work "at their best.").  The problem 
 with recommending programs - about banking or whatever - is that it ignores (in 
part), conceptually, the need for relentless criticism.  The aim of critique is to make 
critique obsolete, which, in part, it already is (which is its strength and weakness).  
However when you construe community-based with state-run it seems that their is 
a contradiction here - are things to be organized centrally or decentrally.  And in 
either way how will the two relate to one another.

On (2) - actually private capital controls almost all of the creation of money.  Not a 
single government in the world, to my knowledge, actually uses their central state 
run banks to finance their state projects.  All of the countries who have done this 
have faced sanctions, corporate pullouts, war, or internal coups.  Of course Canada 
did in WWII.  Canada borrowed 3x the current debt from ITSELF!!!  The debt was 
paid off in a few years because the interest rates were almost nonexistent.  
Imagine that.  The debt of the US 3x what is now paid off in a few years.  Makes 
you wonder why eh?  Privatization of the money supply is probably one of the most 
well hidden secrets.  But I digress and I only mention this as a history lesson.  The 
system of loans and interest itself is in dire need of transformation.

> (3) Everyone knows it, noone says it: Wall Street is going to crash.
> big-time, and then this pathetic, decaying carcass of Empire is going to
> exit the stage of History in a cloud of REIT bankruptcies, pension-fund
> bailouts, and third party initiatives. Any bets on when, and by how much?
> (I'd put a stash of euros on a 35% drop in November 1997 myself).

I'd wager that you will be surprised at how long the tightfist fiscal policy makes are 
able to let this giant machine soar.  I doubt very much that the crash will have 
anything to do with their policies rather I think, and i'm just playing around here, 
that it will only be through massive public intervention (intentional or unintentional) 
that their perfectly greased machine will grind to a halt.
thanks,
ken