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961 [lbo-talk] An age of transition -- rank: 1000

Charles cites http://www.monthlyreview.org/080401li.php , which goes on... "If world oil production and the production of other fossil fuels reach their peak and start to decline in the coming years, then the global capitalist economy will face an unprecedented crisis that it will find difficult to overcome." The radical dream of a deus ex machina to achieve what they fear they can not, the destruction of capitalism, lives on. Marx was sceptical of the argument that discovered the limi ...

Document Size:	5440
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Apr 25 13:30:50 PDT 2008

962 [lbo-talk] East European guilt? (was something rude about Daniel Goldhagen) -- rank: 1000

"Unsure here. Are you saying that the anti-Semitic attitudes of Eastern Europeans can be excused because they did not carry them as far as extermination camps? That they can be excused, even though damaging, as long as extermination camps were *not* in the picture? Or maybe your wording is just a little off - easy enough in email exchanges." You should say "the anti-Semitic attitudes of *some* Eastern Europeans". I thought andie was saying that East Europeans were more enthus ...

Document Size:	6258
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Apr 22 16:30:47 PDT 2008

963 [lbo-talk] I hate Daniel Goldhagen -- rank: 1000

>Never mind the fact that most enthusiastic Jew-killers were Poles, >Ukrainians, Romanians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians -- not >Germans. I appreciate the wish to undermine the 'unique German anti-Semitism' argument, but I can't help but think andie is going too far. Some Poles were enthusiastic anti-Semites, but the extermination policy was imposed upon them by the Nazi state. Shifting the blame on to East Europeans was a common manouevre of west German historians of the era, b ...

Document Size:	5365
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Apr 22 12:38:07 PDT 2008

964 [lbo-talk] London's congestion charge -- rank: 1000

On hearing that London's Congestion Charge increased congestion, Wojtek replies [WS:] That is good, no? It makes driving less desirable. Well, it's an argument, but it was not the reason the congestion charge was introduced (it was supposed to reduce congestion). I guess you could say that what the congestion charge means is that in London, they charge you for the congestion. But why not just ban people from driving cars altogether (assuming you have already given up your own), if that is what ...

Document Size:	5071
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Apr 19 15:42:26 PDT 2008

965 [lbo-talk] London congestion charge, follow-up -- rank: 1000

'C-charge has not cut jams, admits TfL chief' in today's Evening Standard 'Michèle Dix, TfL's managing director of planning... revealed public opposition to road tolls had made TfL think twice about extending the congestion charge zone to the capital's outer boroughs, according to a report in the New Civil Engineer journal. 'A petition calling for national roadpricing plans to be axed attracted 1.8 million signatories. ' 'Her admission confirms claims made by experts - including the AA, London F ...

Document Size:	5808
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Apr 18 10:50:27 PDT 2008

966 [lbo-talk] Food prices falling -- rank: 1000

On world food prices, the following is an excerpt from my book, Green Capitalism: Manufacturing Scarcity in an Age of Abundance, reproduced by Mute Magazine <quote> food supplies are failing because the European Union and the United Nations have pursued a 20-year policy of retiring land from production to arrest the fall in farm prices. Engineering the retirement of farmland is largely a way of easing small farmers (who had been protected under the old Common Agricultural Policy) out of fa ...

Document Size:	6295
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 16 00:15:54 PDT 2008

967 [lbo-talk] London congestion charge -- rank: 1000

I am grateful for Dwayne's insistence on the detail of the argument, but I have no problem with Wojtek's robust mode of expression - though I think he might have had me in mind more than Jordan when it comes to 'defender of the status quo'.* What can I say? It is not my prejudice - the London congestion charge is a great big rip off. John Q. Public is forking out a fortune to pay shysters like Bob Kiley. What New Yorkers do is there business, but I hope they don't assume that the London model ma ...

Document Size:	5111
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Apr 10 09:41:40 PDT 2008

968 [lbo-talk] London congestion charge -- rank: 1000

Wojtek writes: "It is hard to argue that most people do not respond to prices and be taken seriously." but in the UK people pay 63 pence tax on a 95 pence litre of gasoline, and still miles travelled increase annually without let up. What's more, despite slapping a daily eight pound charge on inner London road users, the impact on inner London road use is minimal. The truth is that for those for whom motoring is a necessity, the cost is a secondary consideration unless it becomes wholl ...

Document Size:	5131
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Apr 10 08:44:01 PDT 2008

969 [lbo-talk] London's congestion boondoggle -- rank: 1000

Among those "investments" in London's transport system paid for out of the congestion charge is the sterling two million contract paid to former CIA operative and now transport consultant Bob Kiley. Kiley admits that his consultancy fees, which translate to an annual salary of £737,000, are difficult to justify. He said: "If you ask me what I actually do to earn my consultancy, I'd have to tell you, in all honesty, 'not much'. " Mr Kiley earned £3.9 million during his time as ...

Document Size:	5665
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 9 22:23:46 PDT 2008

970 [lbo-talk] London Congestion Charge -- rank: 1000

Further on London congestion charge: The tax is what we used to call 'regressive', that it it falls on rich and poor equally, meaning that inner London travel has been turned into a privilege of the wealthy. Unlike NY, Londoners are overwhelmingly car owners, so there is no sense in which this is redistributive. Indeed current plans are to charge older cars more. The dubious estimates of the reduction in congestion all pertain to the congestion zone itself without taking into account the increas ...

Document Size:	8225
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 9 22:15:58 PDT 2008

971 [lbo-talk] London congestion charge -- rank: 1000

Doug, quoting Transport for London: 'Congestion Charging has led to reduced traffic levels and pollution, shorter journey times and better air quality. By law, all net revenue has to be invested in improving transport in London. <http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/congestioncharging/6723.aspx> But it would make as much sense to quote George Bush on the success of the surge. Even the section you cite admits that the impact on actual congestion has been negligible (eight per cent). As for 'by l ...

Document Size:	6324
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 9 15:50:23 PDT 2008

972 [lbo-talk] NYblocks mayor's congestion plan -- rank: 1000

Of course, I should say that living in the original congestion charge city, London, that every one knows it is a crock of shit. The city is no less congested (speaking as a London cyclist for the last 20 years). The only change is that the Mayor takes eight pounds a day of anyone driving in central London raising revenue to finance... what? The technology and bureaucracy of collecting the congestion charge. There is no investment in roads (whose potholes are currently on a thirty year waiting li ...

Document Size:	5962
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 9 13:49:12 PDT 2008

973 [lbo-talk] NYblocks mayor's congestion plan -- rank: 1000

Wojtek: 'we are talking about NYC here not the US'. And as far as NYC goes, I agree with you - transit is what people want (the two thirds of them that do not commute by car). I am only saying that what is right for NYC is not necessarily a model that can be reproduced readily elsewhere. So when Doug says that a one per cent reduction of highway journeys is a start, I would say that he is not really taking seriously what that would mean for transit: a doubling of its size. Who really imagines th ...

Document Size:	5196
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 9 10:59:41 PDT 2008

974 [lbo-talk] NY blocks mayor's congestion plan -- rank: 1000

A sense of proportion helps in transport discussions. In 2005 US passenger miles by transit were 49,680 million; by highway 4,884,557 million, about one hundred times as many. Even if transit were to double in size that would only reduce highway passenger miles by one per cent. Specific local conditions might make transit preferable to the car (such as a dense city like NY), but seen in the round, transit and highway are apples and pears, not equivalents. http://www.bts.gov/publications/national ...

Document Size:	5237
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Apr 9 08:17:16 PDT 2008

975 [lbo-talk] Hayek, reading suggestions -- rank: 1000

"So Gombrich and the UK influenced the US art history view, which got handed down to me. In effect this paranoid stupidity obscured or censored most of the French, German, and Italian art history works." Count yourself lucky. Gombrich's books on art history are excellent. Was there any good Hegel-inspired art history? It seems doubtful to me. One imagines the empirical material being dragged in after the event to justify the logistical pyrotechnics. Certainly Georg Lukacs' literary cr ...

Document Size:	5820
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Apr 7 12:59:53 PDT 2008