On Saturday, August 14, 2004 at 07:18:13 (-0700) andie nachgeborenen writes: >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
The distinction between Stalinist societies that appropriated the name "socialist" and those based upon real democratic input is absolutely spot-on. Bill
