Che Che Che

Steven Soderbergh, talking up his film Che, says:

We’re certainly seeing the result of what happens when you make profit the point of everything, where money that’s being earned doesn’t represent any particular product or labor on anybody’s part. That can’t sustain, because it’s magical thinking. It can’t go on indefinitely, because eventually it crashes. Che’s dream of a classless society, a society that isn’t built on the profit motive, is still relevant. The arguments still going on are about his methodology.

Soderbergh's not an economist, he's a (talented and rich) filmmaker, so I don't want to be too hard on him. But let me just make a few obvious points.

1) Profit is not the point of everything.

2) Financial instruments are a good thing for society.

3) Here's magical thinking: believing you can have a classless society, and that if you make the government more powerful, it will wither away.

4) Let's forget about death squads, and jailing people who express themselves in officially unapproved ways, and just talk economics. A dynamic, free economy will have its ups and downs, but an economy based on Che's precepts will effectively be in permanent depression.