Louis Proyect wrote: That's the way world works, folks. For all of Bill Mitchell's glib assurances that "mate, we're all in this collective together", I wouldn't want to be applying for a job at his school if I had a reputation for opposing market socialism on the PEN-L. I can get away with speaking my mind because I was strongly influenced by Spinoza's example. Spinoza realized that he never could defend his ideas forcefully as a professor, so he took up lens-grinding for a living. I tell it like it is. ______________________________________ Good that you are influenced by Spinoza. I think Marx was influenced by Spinoza too--a point well brought out by Althusser. I also think that your point that the failure of the Soviet "planning" is not necessarily a failure of planning as such is important and has not been given serious attention it deserves. I'm not a student of socialism, planned or otherwise, and therefore don't have much interesting things to say on these issues. However, if you think of most of the so-called Third World you would realize that majority of the people lack the basic human necessities like clean drinking water, sanitation, elementary health and education, etc. I wonder how "market" can solve these problems. On the other hand targeted planning such as in five years we will bring one main pipe line for clean drinking water to every village seems to have a much better chance of succeeding, if there is a true political will. On the other hand, the problem of bureaucratization and centralization of power in the planned economy are the real problems to be addressed. I didn't know that Bill Mitchell was a "Market Socialist". My sense is that he is just trying to think through many of these things aloud. Apart from vegetarianism, I don't think his mind is set in concrete. Many of his ideas may be suitable for Australian conditions but not for Indian or some other conditions. There cannot be one socialist blue-print for the whole world. So let's get over the personality clashes and get on with some constructive thinking. Cheers, ajit sinha (Dept. of Economics, The University of Newcastle)
