I think that we have reached an impasse here. We all agree that both
Soviet-style central planning and the market are both flawed. Neither
market socialism nor (what we might call, for want of a better word)
real socialism have ever been tried. Market socialism is susceptible to
outside pressures, just as European style social democracy is acquiesced
in becoming more like U.S. style raw capitalism. As Jim Devine noted,
market socialism would have a hard time avoiding many of the problems
associated with markets.
The debate here seem to imply that the important objective was settling
upon a recipe -- market socialism or real socialism -- and then the work
was complete. In fact, I suspect that once we began to struggle against
the system is now stands and build counter institutions, these counter
institutions would be more likely to form the basis of any future
socialist state that some recipe that we would cook up here on a male
list.
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
