Michael W
> > This, even it were the case, which, as you know, is not
uncontroversial,
> > this doesn't deal with the - intrinsically distributed - information
> > problem. Planners anyway still need to know *what* to produce.
> >
Paul C.
> This can be derived from the Owen/Marx/Lange tradition according
> to which labour time accounts would regulate what individuals could
> consume. Changes in the stocks of goods would then be used to
> regulate levels of production of different goods.
It can, in principle. But that would seem to reconstruct an equally complex
alternative to the Market. Since we are constructing speculative utopias, I
would go for thought on how to control market mechanisms so that they can
be used to facilitate labour allocation in accordance with social need
(first), rather than enforcing Value-form association.
Michael W.
> > The Austrian critique of planning cannot be reduced
> > to a critique of socialism without further discussion. Because we don't
> > like what we see to be the political implications of a body of thought
> may
> > motivate but it cannot be the ground of our critique of that body of
> > thought.
> >
Paul C. (that's 'Cockshott', not 'Charming'):
> Get real Michael.
I thought the aspiration was to transcend the bourgeois reality-principle,
Paul.
> The austrians were quite specific in presenting their critique
> of planning as a critique of socialism, and this is how it is universally
> presented in politics. They intended it as a critique of socialism,
> it is used as critique of socialism, so it is a critique of socialism.
I have no trouble with that. Having been constructed, this ('intelligent')
critique of (a view of) socialism may
really be of interest to 'socialists'.
Comradely greetings
Michael
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Dr Michael Williams
"Books are Weapons"
Department of Economics Home:
School of Social Sciences 26 Glenwood Avenue
De Montfort University Southampton
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