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 ------------------
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005