David Harvey Quotes - Page 2

What sets imperialism of the capitalist sort apart from other conceptions of empire is that it is the capitalist logic that typically dominates, though ... there are times in which the territorial logic comes to the fore. But this then poses a crucial question: how can the territorial logics of power, which tend to be awkwardly fixed in space, respond to the open spatial dynamics of endless capital accumulation? And what does endless capital accumulation imply for the territorial logics of power?

The net effect of increasing scale, centralization of capital, vertical integration and diversification within the corporate form of enterprise has been to replace the 'invisible hand' of the market by the 'visible hand' of the managers.

When money functions as measure of value it must truly represent the values it helps to circulate.

Massive concentration of financial power, accompanied by the machinations of finance capital, can as easily de-stabilize as stabilize capitalism.

Individual capitalists, in short, necessarily act in such a way as to de-stabilize capitalism.

All rent is based on the monopoly power of private owners of certain portions of the globe.

Marx set out to resolve the contradictions and to correct the errors in classical political economy. In this he thought he had succeeded very well. Judging by the sound and the fury of the controversy surrounding his interpretations, he either succeeded too well or deluded himself to the success of his enterprise.

There are signs, these days, that the cultural hegemony of postmodernism is weakening in the West. When even the developers tell an architect like Moshe Safdie that they are tired of it, then can philosophical thinking be far behind?

The accumulation of capital involves the expansion of value over time.

Rampant inflation is just as hard to live with as the devaluation of commodities.

Technological change can become 'fetishized' as a 'thing in itself', as an exogenous guiding force in the history of capitalism.

Not only must weapons be bought and paid for out of surpluses of capital and labour, but they must also be put to use. For this is the only means that capitalism has at its disposal to achieve the level of devaluation now required. The idea is dreadful in its implications. What better reason could there be to declare that it is time for capitalism to be gone, to give way to some saner mode of production?

If, for example, a conspiratorially minded elite is so powerful, has at its fingertips such multiple and delicate instruments with which to fine-tune accumulation, then how can the periodic headlong slides into crisis be explained?

The invocation of social necessity should alert us. It contains the seeds for Marx's critique of political economy as well as for his dissection of capitalism.

There's a difference between an outburst of spontaneous anger, which doesn't have a political objective, and a more measured response that we saw in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Capital creates space-time.

The onset of a crisis is usually triggered by a spectacular failure which shakes confidence in fictitious forms of capital.

If all money capital invests in appropriation and none in actual production, then capitalism is not long for this world.

If Occupy Wall Street can see their way to more collaboration with the union movement, then there will be a great deal of political action possible.

Perpetual revolutions in technology can mean the devaluation of fixed capital on an extensive scale.

The geographical movement of money and commodities as capital is not the same as the movements of products and of precious metals. Capital is, after all, money used in a certain way, and is by no means identical with all money uses.

Individual capitalists, in short, behave in such a way as to threaten the conditions that permit the reproduction of the capitalist class.

The ultimate Form of devaluation is military confrontation and global war.

Monetary relations have penetrated into every nook and cranny of the world and into almost every aspect of social, even private life.

There is, in short, no 'spatial fix' that can contain the contradictions of capitalism in the long run.