Social Structures of disaccumulation: a 101 on the rate of profit and the cause of crisis

These educational notes were prepared for a summer camp organised by Ideas Left Out at Elbow Lake, Ontario in the summer of 2015. I suggested to the organisers that I could produce a fairly simplified introduction to the discussion which would be pluralist, in the sense that it would introduce the various conflicting ideas about the cause of crisis and the special role that the rate of profit plays within it. I promised, after the discussion, that I would make the notes available for those who expressed interest but could not attend. Here they are. This article contains a shameless amount of self-reference. This is not just because the referenced articles of my own contain more explanation than is reasonable in a 101 introduction, but because these articles also contain bibliographies which will allow the reader to explore the subject in her own chosen way and at her own chosen pace.