Lecture of Political Economy
The final lecture of the Political Economy course (May 25, 2023) was largely improvised, with simplistic statements that should have been at least clarified. I apologize for not editing the video to correct them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHXG4zY06UE
Marx, Darwin, Von Neumann, and the Need to Act
Marx is wrong when he thinks that human societies tend toward socialism. Biological societies have not evolved toward socialism but rather toward extreme productivism. If we don't use our intelligence we will move toward a Darwinian system, like a savage capitalism.
00:00 Introduction
Marx argues that with the development of the productive forces capitalism will be replaced by socialism
01:20 Karl Marx, 1818-1883
02:29 According to Marx, the productive forces determine the structure of human societies
04:36 Capitalism is not reformable and tends to self-destruct
05:12 Economic crises worsen, workers' lives deteriorate, and capital becomes concentrated and centralized
06:15 Workers will rebel, and socialism is an inevitable historical necessity
Critique of Marx
07:05 The productive forces do not determine the social structure, at least not in detail
08:09 Economic crises do tend to be more severe, but they can be minimized by reducing the investment rate
09:36 There has been no pauperization
10:08 Capitalism is reformable, for example, with the welfare state
10:58 Even if capitalism collapses, What replaces it could be worse
11:53 There is concentration and centralization of capital, but they are not unavoidable
12:30 Socialism is not a historical necessity
12:38 Discussion on pauperization and reform in capitalism
Darwin states that natural selection designs organisms and societies that tend toward reproductive efficiency
16:12 Charles Darwin, 1809-1882, says that under natural selection, organisms and societies tend to reproduce as efficiently as possible
17:36 The beehive is incredibly efficient
17:58 The design of the honeycombs
22:00 The language of the dances
24:16 Honey storage, drone killing, the queen as a reproductive organ, worker industriousness
25:18 The beehive is extreme productivism; biological societies tend toward maximum growth
Critique of Darwin's generalization
25:52 The disabled girl from Atapuerca It could not survive under natural selection
27:25 In human societies, the unproductive are not necessarily expelled
28:49 Biological societies are very efficient; in human societies, there is no pursuit of maximum efficiency
29:16 Biological societies are very similar within the same species; human societies are very different
29:51 Intelligence allows us to overcome natural selection, for example, with the artificial selection of domestic societies
30:50 Why haven't we artificially selected our own societies?
31:36 We can overcome Darwin's logic with our intelligence and technology
Von Neumann models pure capitalism with maximum growth
32:04 John von Neumann, 1903-1957
35:28 Von Neumann developed the theory of maximum growth
36:11 This theory is the mathematical formulation of Darwin's idea
36:46 By developing the equations, we find properties of capitalism (prices, the law of profitability, the law of compound interest, formulas of commercial arithmetic, the price of land as its perpetual rent, etc.)
37:51 Von Neumann formulated the theory as a model of capitalism; Sraffa and Leontief are particular cases
38:14 Pure capitalism and a beehive operate with the same logic of maximizing growth
Why do we live in capitalist systems?
38:45 With advanced technology, we must use economic mechanisms; we must atomize the allocation and coordinate it, for example, with companies and markets
39:51 To solve the model, we have to use mathematical algorithms that operate like economic mechanisms
41:05 With primitive technologies, the current population of the planet could not live
The need to act
42:16 Recap
43:07 Today, one billion people live in capitalist systems with welfare states and seven billion in less advanced capitalist systems
43:44 Welfare states are the most humane societies to date
45:06 But under current conditions, they cannot be sustained because they have serious design flaws
46:54 First, they apply to only one-eighth of humanity; the rest can compete without their cost and displace them
47:55 Second, they are still capitalist systems with many of their problems (crisis, inefficiency, dehumanization)
48:53 These two flaws put welfare states in serious danger
49:10 The budget deficit required to maintain them is unsustainable in the medium term
50:32 There are also internal problems, such as the demographic one, which makes it impossible to maintain the healthcare and pension systems
51:02 Emigration cannot always solve this problem
52:40 Discussion on integration
59:40 If we do nothing, we will end up with a savage capitalism worldwide
1:00:35 But we have intelligence and we can escape that fate
Course closing
1:01:56 Closing remarks