Late on Sunday the Greek government ordered a six-day shutdown for banks and the stock exchange to avoid a panic-fueled collapse. If Greece is unable to renegotiate a payment of its debts, it may be forced to leave the Euro zone.
Costas Panayotakis, professor of Sociology at City University of New York and author of the book Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.
The dominant schools of neoclassical and neoliberal economics tell us that material scarcity is an inevitable product of an insatiable human nature. Against this, Costas Panayotakis argues that scarcity is in fact a result of the social and economic processes of the capitalist system.The overriding importance of the logic of capital accumulation accounts for the fact that capitalism is not able to make a rational use of scarce resources and the productive potential at the disposal of human society. Instead, capitalism produces grotesque inequalities and unnecessary human suffering, a toxic consumerist culture that fails to satisfy, and a deepening ecological crisis.Remaking Scarcity is a powerful challenge to the current economic orthodoxy. It asserts the core principle of economic democracy, that all human beings should have an equal say over the priorities of the economic system, as the ultimate solution to scarcity and ecological crisis.
After Marriage
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that same-gender marriage is legal across the country. It was a major victory for many but there are also activists who say that there are more battles to be fought and, perhaps, more important battles than marriage equality.
Jorge Gutierrez, founder of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, in Los Angeles.