Re: [OPE] market - and other kinds of - socialism

From: GERALD LEVY <gerald_a_levy@msn.com>
Date: Mon May 02 2011 - 12:30:55 EDT

> The point to remember is that capitalist societies will have a common
> structure of exploitation and reproduction. Socialist societies that are
> this able to run the show , ratehr than having the show run them, will
> show a very great variation in structure and experiment,
 
Paul B:
 
I agree. I'm not in principle opposed to a limited role for market activity
in socialist societies, but I think it is good to examine the historical record
to see what happened when this was attempted in different so-called
'actually existing' socialist societies and some of the premises of the
_theory_ of market socialism. While some ideas related to market socialism
can be traced as far back as the NEP (and before), the theory of market socialism
- especially the Lange model - has always had marginalist assumptions
and principles which, imo, need to be challenged.
 
But, yes, whether there should be markets, where, by whom, and how they will
operate and be regulated will be decided (hopefully) in practice by workers
themselves (rather than by bureaucratic elites). Still, socialists would be well
served to study both theories of socialism and the historical experience because
there is much that can be learned from such a study.
 
In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Mon May 2 12:31:47 2011

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