>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/05/00 11:07AM >>>
Jon Elster made this sort of point. It's fair enough, but it just shows that
in rich society with a profusion of needs, we need to make choices. Is that
so bad?
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CB: The claim is not that it is so bad. It is that there are diminishing returns to
the quality of living of individuals from your standard of ever increasing the number
of needs in society as a whole. If I have to choose between needs, then the total
amount of needs in society being great does not benefit me. And no, I don't think of
the opportunity and the REQUIREMENT that I choose as a sign of my freedom.
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It will be nice when the hard choice we must make is whether to
devote ourselves to the symphony or the seminar rather than to paying rent
or food! --jks
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CB: The Marxist position is that humans are not truly free unless such needs as
shelter or food , physiological necessities, are automatically met. Fulfillment of
these necessities is a premise for freedom. Freedom is the mastery of necessity.
>CB: On a related topic, another reason that the notion that more and more
>needs, in an ever growing way like GDP, is not necessarily only standard to
>measure improvement of standard of living: the fulfillment or consumption
>of many needs takes long tracks of time. It takes time to listen to a
>symphony, attend a party , dance and sing, or to go fishing, to build a
>car, or to eat a decent meal, or to enjoy a beautiful sunset, or to grow a
>garden , to play games in sports, to learn a science, to care for a child.
>There is only so much time in a day or a lifetime. With an evergrowing ,
>unlimited proliferation of needs, eventually there will not be enough time
>to properly consume all the needs except in some instantaneous, empty
>sense: there will only be fast foods, not slow feastly dinners.
>Instantaneous consumption is not necessarily the highest quality
>consumption. The total quantity of needs can affect the individual
>qualitity of needs.
>
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