Chapter 1
The Capitalistic Social Order
§ 6 Commodity economy
“Under the capitalist system, all products are produced for the market, they all become commodities.”
I don’t know what would be produced that is not for the market. If you have a monetary system every item produced for other people is going to be sold on the market. Bukharin notes that a farmer who uses his own land to make bread has not made a commodity but merely bread for his personal consumption. Unless everyone is suddenly going to start making everything for themselves there will have to be a market.
“A commodity economy necessarily implies private ownership.”
Bukharin implies that private ownership and commodities are bad because it leads to competition and exploitation . However in an earlier example he notes the farmer making bread for his personal use. That bread could only be made through private ownership even though that bread was not a commodity. So even a farmer making bread for personal consumption requires private ownership.
“Now, wherever private ownership and commodity production exist, there is a struggle for buyers, or competition among sellers.”
It is interesting that Bukharin first uses the word struggle and then redefines it as competition. Struggle seems to be used often in the oppressor versus the oppressed class discussion. So rather than using competition alone he first introduces the concept using the Marxist terminology.
Bukharin is painting the picture that competition hurts people because it leads to exploitation and only the oppressor class will benefit. Rather than seeing competition as something that can bring out the best in a society he only sees the potential for abuse. Competition has another potential that is very advantageous and that is innovation. In a thriving market new technology and goods and services should constantly be introduced to consumers.
I have enjoyed the previous books I read by Ben Macintyre. I picked this one up not knowing anything about Ursula Kuczynski. She grew up to be a very successful spy for the Soviet Union and received the code name Agent Sonya. I looked forward to reading this. Shortly after I began reading I was hoping I would read about when she would be caught.
Ursula lived a remarkable life. Born in Germany and coming of age in the 1920’s she was exposed to a world of turmoil. She became a committed communist early in life and would not be deterred from her ideology.
She traveled the world first leaving Germany for the United States partially to avoid marriage. She became a member of the Communist Party of the United States. After a stint in the USA she returned to Germany and married the man she had left behind. His career took them to China where her career as a spy began. From there she traveled to the Soviet Union for additional training and continued to work as a spy throughout Europe.
I found it ...
“The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas – complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.”
George F. Kennan
