RE: [OPE] markets and socialism

wpc@dcs.gla.ac.uk

Diego is proposing very high rates of population growth as
plan targets (4% per year). If one wanted to achieve this, prohibition
of contraception and compulsory catholic education would
be more what is needed than what you suggest.

Paul Cockshott
Dept of Computing Science
University of Glasgow
+44 141 330 1629
www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/reports/

-----Original Message-----
From: ope-bounces@lists.csuchico.edu on behalf of GERALD LEVY
Sent: Fri 6/6/2008 1:56 PM
To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list
Subject: RE: [OPE] markets and socialism

> I am also less than convinced that it would be possible to> plan world population growth in such a way as to achieve a> rate of demographic growth of 4% in a country like Spain, or> more generally that a higher demographic growth could be> achieved in OECD than non OECD countries. It is one thing for> a communist government to limit family size as in China, it> is quite another for it to be able to enforce much larger family> sizes as would be required to achieve a 4% rate of population> growth.

Hi Paul C:

Other than providing sex education to everyone and birth control 
(including abortion) upon request to anyone who has reached 
puberty, why should a socialist society seek to plan long-term 
population growth? 

The experience in the PRC was coercive and one which we
should not seek to replicate.  While the one child per family
policy didn't legally prevent families from having more that one
child, it did include a series of disincentives which could be
seen as punishment for those who chose larger families. 
The unanticipated consequence of this policy - especially in 
rural, traditional areas - was an alarming spike in infanticides,
the victims of which were mostly new-born girls.  

Reproductive and sexual freedom should be championed in 
a socialist society, not optimal population targets as 
determined by planners and technocrats.

In solidarity, Jerry

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