Do we really know at all what a socialist society would do about transportation safety? I think trying to predict from the hostory of Stalinist societies is a very shaky guide. A socialist society, as most conceive it in this list, would be one where there would be a lot more democratic input into decisions about how much weight to give values like transportation safety. Of course the very hallmark of Stalinism was that there was very little democratic input into such decisions. So you can't tell much from what people would do when they had no say about what they might do if they had a real say. Now, we might guess that if they had a say they would prefer to be safer, but (as this thread began) safety competes with other things that might matter a lot to them too. Cost in resources, availability of transportation, etc. So it's not really possible to say how the debate would come out beforehand. jks
"David B. Shemano" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"David B. Shemano" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Kenneth Campbell writes:
>> >How about West and East Germany? Can't complain about
>> >different historical development.
>>
>> I think most might agree that there is a very different historical
>> development between the parts of Germany that were east and west. Check
>> it out. Pretty main stream.
>>
>> And, after the war, the east had a different trajectory, as well, based
>> on need of the conquering powers. You seem to know history... help me
>> out here... Which one of the two countries that has "US" in its
>> acronym... which one lost about 25 million people in the war... and had
>> cities bombed, occupied, dismantled, bombed again...
>>
>> >I stand by the position that if you refuse to consider
>> >historical evidence and insist on speculating about
>> >what could happen in utopia: cop out.
>>
>> I say the same thing! Brother, we've found each other at last!
>>
Let's try one last time. The suggestion was made that a socialist economy will more highly value transportation safety than a capitalist economy. Every historical example I come up with to try and test the suggestion, you say is not an appropriate comparison. For example, you imply there is apparently something in the historical development of East Germany, as compared to West Germany, that would cause East Germany auto manufacturers not to value safety as much as their West German counterparts, even though the East Germans had a socialist economy and West Germany had a capitalist economy, but such fact has no relevance for the validity of the suggestion that socialist economies value safety more than capitalist economies. I am at a loss how to respond.
How do you propose to test the hypothesis? Is there nothing relevant from 75 years of historical experience that will satisfy you?
David Shemano
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