Sid wrote:
> I don't think that's the case, Michael. You raised the matter of Cuban
> kids' attraction to blue jeans and expressed concern that they weren't
> thinking about the fact that along with blue jeans, they'd get private
> health care and uncontrolled rents Stateside.
>
> I asked if there was some theoretical link between social planning and
> ownership (which brings the public health care and controlled rents) on
> the one hand and the inability to produce blue jeans (the quintessential
> symbol of the consumer good under capitalism) on the other.
>
Sorry. I should have responded. I don't think that a planned economy
would have any problems producing blue jeans. The attraction of the
Levi's or the Nikes is the glitz attached to the products, rather than the
product itself. A planned economy with popular participation in the
planning or at least with a sensitivity to the people should have no
trouble producing attractive goods -- as long as they would be left alone
to pursue their own goals without Contras or the U.S. marines.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
