In the sickness of its declining years capitalism is being nursed by the Labour Party. Lord Keynes, who died on April 21st, was the doctor who prescribed the treatment. His theories, on which rest the belief in the possibility of “full employment" under capitalism, have come to be widely accepted not because of intrinsic merit or originality, but because capitalists and Labour politicians alike have dire need of a panacea that will, they hope, make capitalism work or at least persuade the workers that it will. Faced with mounting unemployment and the political discontent that it causes, many Tory and Liberal politicians had lost confidence in their ability to save capitalism. Lord Keynes promised them another lease of life. The Labour Party new to power, never had much confidence in its own ability, and the "economic blizzard” of 1931 that wrecked the Labour Government destroyed even what it had; so Lord Keynes was their hope, too.
He believed that investment and price trends could be made subject to governmental control and thereby booms and slumps could be ironed out and approximately full employment secured . . . Socialists have no hesitation in saying that if the Labour Government attempts anything of the kind—it may, of course, get cold feet and scurry to the safety of “orthodox" financial policies, as did Snowden and MacDonald—it will not succeed in avoiding unemployment and crises.
(From the editorial in Socialist
Standard, June 1946)
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