Date: 11 Sep 96 15:42:00 EDT From: jc mullen <100663.643-AT-CompuServe.COM> Subject: Abundance As long as there is penury, there will be no socialism. Fortunately there is no penury. Take the present society. Take away enrgy and resources which are only made necessary by the dictatorship of the market : I estimate 95% of the finance industry 95% of the advertising industry 60% of research (repeated by different competing companies, or aiming only at profit) 100% of arms industry 90% of police 100% of insurance The massive savings through rational transport (everyone hates cars in the city) The massive savings because people are not so fed up out of their mind that they spend their money partly on bullshit because it makes them feel like they are worth something. Add The skills of the tens of millions of unemployed The way people are prepared to work when they are working for something worthwhile and not for some arsehole of a boss. The rises in productivity that can come quickly when scientific researcj is not based on competition but on cooperation. The rises in productivity already known but not used because of the market. The power of people who have been educated not bullied. This is what i call abundance. The argument of whether or not resources are unlimitedly large is pretty uninteresting. it is at least absolutely clear that a socialist society can provide for everyone what can reasonably be described as luxury. Communism is not an absolute paradise... who needs it. It is only a world without famine without wars without alienation where everyone lives in luxury. Like Mae West said "I've been poor and I've been rich. believe me, rich is better. JOhn Mullen SI France --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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