Welcome to Litsy!

Lizzie Burns was the longtime lover of Frederick Engels. An illiterate Irishwoman, little is know of her, but here McCrea brings her to life. This was a little hard to get into and the language is difficult, just because it‘s quite different from modern American English, but once I got settled in, I really enjoyed it. She‘s a great character and there‘s some good sly humor in this book, though it‘s not as light as the cover suggests.

“The capitalist himself does not know in most cases how much variable capital he employs in his business. We have already seen . . ., and we shall now see further, that the only distinction within his capital that impresses itself on the capitalist as fundamental is the distinction between fixed and circulating capital.”

“We see here again how a variation in constant capital has the same effect on the rate of profit, irrespective of whether this variation is brought about by an increase or decrease in the material components of c, or simply by a change in their value.”

Enjoying an egg and cheese sandwich and a “shakerato” (espresso and sugar shaken over ice) with some Marx before running errands. Officially enough of a regular at this cafe that the owner knows my name ☕️ 📖

After a long break, finally picking up Marx again. Enjoying a picnic in a local park with the best flowers. Having an egg and cheese sandwich on a cheddar chive biscuit and a rose white mocha. One of the park workers gave me a flower crown!

“The overall result of our investigation, so far as the question at hand is concerned, is again that it is only the Marxian school that has achieved anything. Fireman and Conrad Schmidt, if they read this third volume, may each be well satisfied with his own work.”

“I see no more reason to be pessimistic today as to the outcome of that endeavour than Marx was at the time he wrote Capital.”

“‘This can continue quite happily for a good while, stimulated by prospective demand, and in these branches of industry business proceeds very briskly, as far as both merchants and industrialists are concerned. The crisis occurs as soon as the returns of those merchants who sell far afield (or who have accumulated stocks at home) become so slow and sparse that the banks press for payment for commodities bought, or bills fall due . . .‘”

“One would have a hard time discovering a single branch of production in which labour costs constitute a larger part of total current (annual) production costs today than they did on the eve of the Second World War, or at the beginning of the twentieth century - let alone a century or century-and-a-half ago.”

This little guy showed up today. Keeps demanding that I “seize the means of production.” Should I call someone?
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