From useful idiocy to activism: a Marxist interpretation of computer development

Baran and Sweezy’s 1966 study of U.S. capitalism [2] argued that its fundamental problem is not “diminishing returns” but “the tendency of surplus to rise” – from which it has been rescued by wars, by “epoch-making innovations”, and by a massive sales effort. In 1913 Rosa Luxemburg [12] showed that capitalism is unsustainable without the unacknowledged support of non-capitalist producers. Together these analyses seem to explain a great deal about today’s, capitalist IT industries. Keywords Capitalism, Marxism, economic surplus, sales effort, marketing, electronics, computers.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CRITICAL
• Authors: Bob Hughes
• Keywords: Applied Computing, CRITICAL 2005, Massive Sales Effort, Sales Effort, Sweezy’s 1966 Study