Capitalism has been a totalising-1 am tempted to write "totalitarian"-system, in a way in which no previous mode of production had been, compelling the whole world to dance to its frenzied rhythms of competiton and accumulation. As it has done so, the system as a whole has continually reacted back upon the individual processes on which it depends. It forces each capital to force down the price of labour power to the minimum that will keep its workers able and willing to work.74 The clash of capitals compels each to accumulate in a way that will produce downward pressure on profit rates for all of them. It stops any of them standing still, even if they occasionally become aware of the devastation they are causing. It is a system that creates periodic havoc for all those who live within it, a horrific hybrid of Frankenstein's monster and of Dracula, a human creation that has escaped control and lives by devouring the lifeblood of its creators.
It is this understanding which above all distinguishes Marx's approach from every school of mainstream economics, orthodox and heterodox alike, and which means it alone provides a guide for analysing capitalism in our century. But doing so means using Marx's concepts to go beyond Marx.
The Dynamics of the System
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