From: Paul Cockshott (wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK)
Date: Tue May 22 2007 - 11:19:38 EDT
> How do you ensure that the total proposals put forward correspond to a > feasible plan? Hi Paul: Before the process of voting begins, every participant would have to know the total amount of resources available. It's possible to conceive of some specialized citizens' committees which has elected representatives of different communities, who would have to resolve disputes. The real problem here is cultural, rather than scientific: what is the process by which citizens come to realize for themselves that their consumption patterns need to change for social and environmental reasons? The problem of internalities can only be resolved in a more advanced and progressive socialist society than we have seen to date. The issue isn't simply one of the presence or absence of abundance. In solidarity, Jerry ----------------------------- I agree you can not rely on abundance. But you need to propose a workable social practice. If you are deciding ex ante on production, the decisions of all the participants have To add up to a feasible plan. At the very least in your committee scheme each Committee would need a budget of social that they had at their disposal and proposed Production would have to fall within that budget. Then you have to have a mechanism to allocate the budgets to committees. I think that such deliberative processes are only feasible for a) the major outlines of the public budget for free services could be voted on by the population b) within the free services some sort of committee or dikasteria structure could decide on sub-budgets I think it would be very cumbersome for much consumer goods allocation though.
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