File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1994/94-11-30.000, message 53


From: tgs-AT-cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 1994 22:49:24 EST
Subject: Re: anticipation of demand


Steve,
So the problem with planning vis.innovation is there's too much equality,
and demand is universalized rather than the province of middle-class
auto and motorbike fanatics? That really makes planning undesirable to me.

The source of innovation in a democratic planned society is (a) the desire
of workers to replace themselves with machines so they can fuck off or
do their own thing (b) the desire of workers to do their own thing, which
can increasingly be, among growing numbers of workers, to cooperatively
innovate new and wilder and and much  more fun leisured items.

Since socialism divorces us from the logic of work for us or starve, the 
innovative powers of human beings will be freed up more than ever before.
Innovation will not be resisted, for there will be a sliding scale of wages
and hours: the wages will slide up, the hours will slide down (this is why
the Transitional Program is so important as a means of getting socialism
across in the here and now), and innovation will cost no one the capacity 
to survive and prosper. Innovation will thrive, but it will not be at the 
cost of mass human suffering for the benefit of a few middle class hobbyists.

Tom


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