Wednesday, August 12, 2020

What the Father of Kamala Harris Thinks About Marxism

Donald Harris

The father of Kamala Harris is Donald Harris, an immigrant from Jamaica, who taught economics at Stanford University.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from London University in 1960. Six years later he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of California- Berkeley. He retired from Stanford as a professor emeritus of economics in 1998.

He joined the Stanford faculty in 1972 and his focus according to the University was "exploring the analytical conception of the process of capital accumulation and its implications for a theory of growth of the economy, with the aim of providing thereby an explanation of the intrinsic character of growth as a process of uneven development."

In other words, there is nothing to indicate in his Stanford profile that he is a Marxist. The words Marx, Marxist, Marxism are nowhere to be found on his profile.

Indeed, when I first looked at his profile when Kamala was in the primaries, I passed him off as an unimpressive affirmative action hire.

He was a special hire all right but the fact that he is Jamaican was a bonus, there is no question he was viewed as an "alternative economist" Marxist hire.

This was the headline from The Stanford Daily when Harris was offered his post.:



The newspaper clip reads:
Marxist Offered Economics Post
By KEN MCLAUGHLIN 
Don Harris, a prominent Marxist Professor, has been offered a full professorship in the Economics Department here, Department Chairman James Rosse confirmed yesterday. Rosse said Harris has not yet accepted the offer, but he "expects to hear from him this week."
Harris who still holds a tenured position at the University of Wisconsin, has served as a visiting Professor here, and is currently teaching at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica.
The appointment is the direct result of student pressure in recent years to hire more faculty who favor an "alternative approach" to economics, said Economics Prof. John Gurley, who now teaches the only undergraduate course in Marxist economics. 
Gurley said the appointment of Harris was the culmination of the six-month "round-the-world" search for the most qualified Marxist professor available
Exceptionally good
Gurley called Harris "an exceptionally good teacher, outstanding researcher and one of the leading young people in Marxist economics."
One knowledgeable source told the Daily that some senior faculty members were very hesitant hiring Harris, but they gradually yielded tp student pressure.
A conservative economics faculty member, who wished to remain anonymous said he was "not part of the decision and it would not be fair to say anything. "
He also added that "as far as I'm concerned Harris is not in the same field I'm in."
Alternatives
The department, Gurley said, looked for economists who espoused not only Marxists viewpoints, but other alternative perspectives as well.
Libertarian economists, who advocated untrammeled laissez-faire capitalism,for exa

mple, were considered in the selection, he claimed
Gurley said the search included those knowledgeable about socialist economies even if they didn't sympathize with a Marxist system.

At Stanford, Harris was one of the key faculty members behind a then-new program, "Alternative Approaches to Economic Analysis" as a field of graduate study at Stanford University.

This is what he wrote about Marxism in his book, Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution (my highlights):

Marx was the theorist of economic growth par excellence. He concieved of the capitalist economy as an inherently expansionary system having an inner logic of its own. It was his purpose to discover the abstract and general principles underlying the operation of this form of society and the contradictions it entailed, so as to account for its process of change and supersession. Out of this scientific endeavor, Marx developed an integrated system of analysis with a distinctive method and quite specific formulation of the laws of motion of the capitalist economy. Others, after Marx, have attempted to elaborate upon and develop further this system of analysis, recognizing the changing conditions of capitalism as it develops. Specific elements of Marx's own formulation as concerns, for instance, the law of the falling tendency of the rate of profit and a tendency of the organic composition of capital to rise, are subject to an ongoing debate within the Marxian tradition. The system of analysis is also incomplete in some of its essentials. Nevertheless, the Marxian system remains today as a powerful basis upon which to construct a theory of growth of the capitalist economy appropriate to modern conditions. Accordingly, an attempt is made below (see Chapters 3 and 10) to develop some elements of the Marxian theoretical system that are relevant to this purpose.
And that is how the daddy of Kamala rolls.

Kamala received a Bachelor's degree from Howard University where she double-majored in political science and (ahem) economics and chaired Howard's economics society.

.-RW



21 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes, he was a communist but his social theory was actually true: human societies progress though a struggle between two distinct social classes. ... The proletariat, the workers, are the lower class. They perform the labor, but the upper class managers, bosses, and rulers, called the bourgeoisie, get the profits. HOW IS THIS FALSE?

      Delete
    2. It is not true the upper class managers, bosses, and rulers get the profits. The owners of the means of production (the capitalists) get the profits.

      See, there's a distinction you are missing. If managers, bosses, and rulers own the means of production, (e.g., if they are shareholders in a corporation) they would get a share of the profits. If they do not own the means of production, they do not get a share of the profits. They get a wage or salary just like the other workers. (Believe it or not, managers and bosses do work.) It might be these types get a higher wage or salary than other workers-- they probably do-- but it is still a wage or salary, not a share of the profits. Get that?

      Also, if it so happened that workers of the lower class, as you put it, managed to buy some shares or in some other way or form owned the means of production, they would receive a piece of the profits. Workers of the lower classes, by doing this, now and then do succeed in enriching themselves. Every now and then very substantially.

      Have a nice day.

      -Yusef

      Delete
    3. Gary is definitely a Marxist. Just let him be and pray we don't have to be a part if watching him learn, but by all means, allow him to leave and find a place that does govern as he likes. Carl Marx refused to work for capital and support his family. Loser using the system, but he's dead still and we learned alot alot because of his laziness. If you could speak to his children, they hated him!

      Delete
    4. In America the profits go to the share holders, which can also be the workers, and managers of the entity. Like Walmart, largely employee owned.
      So it not a simple two class system.

      Delete
  2. Replies
    1. NOT according to her and her husband's tax returns.

      Delete
    2. You are right! Both father and daughter are brilliant! We need intelligent people leading us! Enough of the rabble rousing and pettiness of the Trump regime.

      Delete
  3. Are you out of your mind ? Are you going vote for a presidential candidate with dementia and a vice-presidential candidate with roots of upbringing with Marxist ideas ? Good night, America, I will pray for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sadly you are not thinking straight.....name one marxist/socialist/communist country that has been good for their citizens?? All capitalist countries citizens prosper and have more freedoms than any socialist/marxist/communist country bar nonw

      Delete


    2. "name one marxist/socialist/communist country that has been good for their citizens"

      Do you consider Sweden a socialist country? It has done quite well. The people are quite free there, too. It would be possible to argue they are as free, or even more free, than in the U.S.

      How about the Peoples' Republic of China? It has the second largest economy in the world. (And it grew and modernized at a remarkable rate.)

      I'm not taking a stand here one way or the other but you did state there wasn't one marxist/socialist country that has been good for their citizens.

      Besides that, though, it isn't true ALL "capitalist countries citizens prosper and have more freedoms". there are many dirt poor capitalist countries and some of them have extremely oppressive systems of government.

      Delete
    3. Sweden is not a socialist country, that's what desperate Marxists hold up as the shining beacon of socialism but is in fact a capatalist country, you also fail to mention it is heavily taxed up the ass to support its citizens.

      Delete
  4. Is the Kamala half Black... or half White?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She is Hindi indian and Jamaican.

      Delete
    2. And largely acts like a 70's hippie kid. Has enough white looks and style to mingle with both sides.

      Delete
  5. Kamala is incredibly dishonest and needs to be repudiated again, just as she was in the primaries. Like Hillary she is a cold and selfish fish that no really likes. America is beginning to get over the criminal presidency of Obama now that President Trump has upended PC and globalism the four years. What an amazing job he has done to Make America Greater, all this through a pandemic, and a Democrat majority in the House whose only work was to unsuccessfully try to bring down the Trump Presidency and try to win in November no matter what it cost all of us Americans.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy to see you Kamala. Having also attended Howard University during the period it had the highest foreign student enrollment in the United States. I was in school when Spottswood Robinson was at the School of Law and Patricia Harris was the Dean of women. Let's not ever forget the great celebration in 1962 for All of the countries who became Independent during this period and the Howard Woman was in attendance.

    ReplyDelete
  7. https://neiliabiden.com Jasper was a secret member of the Nation of Islam

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This story is leaking out now, but does anybody care, yet?
      Could get very distressed about the future of America, but for Our God, thru Yeshua, and His Holy Spirit. Not trying to be religious.
      I hope the rope we hang on (Kruschev) is not our election system.

      Delete
  8. i was hanging around Stanford in 1974-5 and saw some of the stuff.
    I lived in Silicon Valley for 17 years.
    Are we seeing the socio-economic fruit of the seeds sown in those years?

    ReplyDelete