From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu May 17 2007 - 11:19:02 EDT
It is true that advertisement exploits the sentiments and complexes of human mind, but is dangerous to think that in a Socialist Commonwealth these things would be absent. Dangerous because the Planner willing to reduce the set of goods and services, canceling differentiation, would set up as a master interpreting our will better than us. That’s why instead of prohibiting advertisement we have to make rules to reduce as possible its manipulation function, for example, setting the appropriate regulation to guarantee that the information advertised is as technically true as possible without impeding to reinforce brand loyalty. This loyalty is not immune to quality whenever non-market barriers are absent. =================================================================== Hi Alejandro: There is another alternative. The process does not either have to be elitist and directed by "the Planner" or rely on firm advertsing. The key, I believe, is to have a participatory, democratic, and less centralized form of planning: "Planning by the People, Not the Planners". This would allow citizens to have an input into the (ex ante) decisions about what to produce rather than relying on "the Planner". With all of the advances in information technology, this is much more possible today than even a few years ago. Sixty million votes were cast last week to determine the two finalists for "American Idol": if people can vote on that, then they can indicate their ex ante preferences for what goods to produce in what quantities. In solidarity, Jerry
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