Is Capital Accumulation Compatible With Economic Progress and Stability?

The article analyzes whether capital accumulation is compatible with economic progress and stability. Institutionalism is a way of thinking to which many thinkers within the last generation have been shifting. It is essentially a movement away from the classical conception of the economy toward a scientifically oriented set of doctrines which emphasizes and develops the machine as being the material basis of production. There is evidence that supports the thesis that there are two distinct brands of institutionalism, the basis for distinguishing between them being the extent to which certain economists were obviously influenced by philosopher Thorstein Veblen and disseminated the tenets of his philosophy in their own works. Such a distinction is not as arbitrary as it may appear. The problem of institutionalism then is basically the problem of influencing society to do something unpleasant, to give up cherished and long-held notions in order to effect a cure. The real problem is the neurosis of the complex of capital which supports the arbitrary institutional structure of capitalism. The accumulation of funds makes no creative contribution to the progress of society.