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The profit system: how (and why) to deflect the radical critique

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  • Gregory Robson

    (Iowa State University
    University of Notre Dame)

Abstract

What we may call the Normative Representativeness Requirement (NRR) is a necessary condition on any successful objection to a political-economic system that is decentralized and profit-oriented. This article applies the NRR to what I call “The Radical Critique” of the profit system. I argue that this critique, which is not only historically important (as reported by Marx (Capital: a critique of political economy, C.H. Kerr and Company, Chicago, 1867)) but also continues to circulate (e.g., as reported by Cohen (Why not socialism?, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2009), as reported by Piketty (Capital in the twenty-first century, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2014)), does not meet the NRR. The Radical Critique of diverse forms of the profit system (e.g., laissez-faire or a welfare-state) suffers from a fatal flaw that renders its logical force at best undiscernible.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory Robson, 2024. "The profit system: how (and why) to deflect the radical critique," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 109-122, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:35:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s10602-023-09401-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-023-09401-4
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    Keywords

    Profitable business; G. A. Cohen; Karl Marx; Worker domination; Capitalism; Exploitation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A1 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics
    • B0 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General
    • P0 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General
    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies
    • P2 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies
    • P3 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions

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