Where Does Profit Come From?
11/01/23 • 25 min
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[S5.5 E06] Where Does Profit Come From?
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Professor Harvey takes us back to the very origins of Marx’s Capital by asking the questions, where does profit come from and what are the consequences of profit making? Harvey discusses how the debates between Ricardo and Malthus informed Marx’s answers to those questions. He then turns to Rosa Luxemburg’s insights into the role of imperialism’s predations on non-capitalist societies to expand accumulation. Finally, he brings the argument up to date by discussing the role of the credit system. As the internal capacity for consumerism and the imperialist capacity for consumerism become exhausted, the burden lies upon an expansion of the credit system to realize the value of ever-growing consumerism. Increasing financialization since the 1980s has created a different kind of logic to the dynamics of capital in which more and more of the onus is placed upon the growth of the credit system to keep the accumulation of capital expanding, which exposes the capitalist system to financial crises.
David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is co-produced by Politics in Motion. Politics In Motion is a nonprofit organization founded in May 2023 by Prof. David Harvey and Prof. Miguel Robles-Durán, along with Dr. Chris Caruso, instructional technologist, and noted writer and art curator Laura Raicovich. Our anti-capitalist media platform offers piercing insights and thought-provoking analyses on political, social, spatial, cultural, environmental and economic issues through a range of engaging mediums, including YouTube streams, podcasts, and live events.
If you would like to support this project and see more of Prof. Harvey, visit us at:
https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
__________________________________________________________________________
David Harvey's lastest book "A Companion to Marx's Grundrisse" (Verso 2023):
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2930-a-companion-to-marx-s-grundrisse
__________________________________________________________________________
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Follow David Harvey:
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#profit #imperialism #finance
[S5.5 E06] Where Does Profit Come From?
Stay connected with the latest news from Politics in Motion. Join our mailing list today: https://www.politicsinmotion.org
Professor Harvey takes us back to the very origins of Marx’s Capital by asking the questions, where does profit come from and what are the consequences of profit making? Harvey discusses how the debates between Ricardo and Malthus informed Marx’s answers to those questions. He then turns to Rosa Luxemburg’s insights into the role of imperialism’s predations on non-capitalist societies to expand accumulation. Finally, he brings the argument up to date by discussing the role of the credit system. As the internal capacity for consumerism and the imperialist capacity for consumerism become exhausted, the burden lies upon an expansion of the credit system to realize the value of ever-growing consumerism. Increasing financialization since the 1980s has created a different kind of logic to the dynamics of capital in which more and more of the onus is placed upon the growth of the credit system to keep the accumulation of capital expanding, which exposes the capitalist system to financial crises.
David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is co-produced by Politics in Motion. Politics In Motion is a nonprofit organization founded in May 2023 by Prof. David Harvey and Prof. Miguel Robles-Durán, along with Dr. Chris Caruso, instructional technologist, and noted writer and art curator Laura Raicovich. Our anti-capitalist media platform offers piercing insights and thought-provoking analyses on political, social, spatial, cultural, environmental and economic issues through a range of engaging mediums, including YouTube streams, podcasts, and live events.
If you would like to support this project and see more of Prof. Harvey, visit us at:
https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
__________________________________________________________________________
David Harvey's lastest book "A Companion to Marx's Grundrisse" (Verso 2023):
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2930-a-companion-to-marx-s-grundrisse
__________________________________________________________________________
Follow Politics in Motion:
Website: https://www.politicsinmotion.org
Patreon: https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliticsInMotion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/politicsinmotion
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/politicsnmotion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Politics-in-Motion/100092557227878/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@politicsinmotion
Follow David Harvey:
Website: http://davidharvey.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/profdavidharvey
#profit #imperialism #finance
Previous Episode
Mass and the Politics of Scale
[S5.5 E05] Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: Mass and the Politics of Scale
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Professor Harvey discusses the UAW strike and the transformation of the automobile industry. He argues that mere electrification of the automobile cannot solve the environmental crisis. The sheer scale at which capital is now working is radically different from that which existed in Marx's time. The growth incentive must be dismantled in such a way that allows us to meet our needs. But we have organized our societies around the automobile. We urgently have to start thinking about a political program which is actually going to stop this process of continuously doubling the economy's size every 15 years or so. By not considering the true scale of the problem we're not really thinking through the future consequences of our current actions because in many ways what we're doing is condemning the future by our present decisions.
David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is co-produced by Politics in Motion. Politics In Motion is a nonprofit organization founded in May 2023 by Prof. David Harvey and Prof. Miguel Robles-Durán, along with Dr. Chris Caruso, instructional technologist, and noted writer and art curator Laura Raicovich. Our anti-capitalist media platform offers piercing insights and thought-provoking analyses on political, social, spatial, cultural, environmental and economic issues through a range of engaging mediums, including YouTube streams, podcasts, and live events.
If you would like to support this project and see more of Prof. Harvey, visit us at:
https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
__________________________________________________________________________
David Harvey's lastest book "A Companion to Marx's Grundrisse" (Verso 2023):
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2930-a-companion-to-marx-s-grundrisse
__________________________________________________________________________
Follow Politics in Motion:
Website: https://www.politicsinmotion.org
Patreon: https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliticsInMotion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/politicsinmotion
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@politicsinmotion
Twitter: https://twitter.com/politicsnmotion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Politics-in-Motion/100092557227878/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@politicsinmotion
Follow David Harvey:
Website: http://davidharvey.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/profdavidharvey
#uaw #strike #marxism
Next Episode
The Question of Debt in Our Lives
[S5.5 E07] The Question of Debt in Our Lives
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Last week Professor Harvey pointed out that the basic means by which consumerism is developed in such a way is to be consistent with the growth of an economy based upon profit seeking was to expand indebtedness. But it turns out that the credit system and the circulation of interest-bearing capital on the development of indebtedness has another very strong role. And therefore there is a double force which is concentrating upon the credit system. And that double force is related to the fact that increasingly in the history of capital, capital has required more and more fixed capital, fixed capital within the factory in the form of machines and plant and all the rest of it, but also fixed capital of what Marx called fixed capital of an independent kind - that is fixed capital that would be used in common. Professor Harvey traces the development of fixed capital and the credit system to understand the financialization of our economy today.
David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is co-produced by Politics in Motion. Politics In Motion is a nonprofit organization founded in May 2023 by Prof. David Harvey and Prof. Miguel Robles-Durán, along with Dr. Chris Caruso, instructional technologist, and noted writer and art curator Laura Raicovich. Our anti-capitalist media platform offers piercing insights and thought-provoking analyses on political, social, spatial, cultural, environmental and economic issues through a range of engaging mediums, including YouTube streams, podcasts, and live events.
If you would like to support this project and see more of Prof. Harvey, visit us at:
https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
__________________________________________________________________________
David Harvey's lastest book "A Companion to Marx's Grundrisse" (Verso 2023):
https://www.versobooks.com/products/2930-a-companion-to-marx-s-grundrisse
__________________________________________________________________________
Follow Politics in Motion:
Website: https://www.politicsinmotion.org
Patreon: https://patreon.com/PoliticsinMotion
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PoliticsInMotion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/politicsinmotion
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@politicsinmotion
Twitter: https://twitter.com/politicsnmotion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Politics-in-Motion/100092557227878/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@politicsinmotion
Follow David Harvey:
Website: http://davidharvey.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/profdavidharvey
BlueSky: https://davidharvey.bsky.social
Mastodon: https://sciences.social/@DavidHarvey
#profit #capital #finance #consumerism
David Harvey's Anti-Capitalist Chronicles - Where Does Profit Come From?
Transcript
David Harvey (00:00):
Welcome to the Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, which is a production of politics in motion. Now today I want to take us back to the very origins of a lot of the argument about capital by asking the question, where does prophet come from and what are the consequences of profit making? What we really have to look at here, however, is a recognition that profit means there is more at the end of the day than there was at the beginning of the day. That therefore we're not go
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