> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Walker) > Subject: [PEN-L:10323] Re: planning and democracy > . . . > Max is right (except for the last line). To add definition to Max's "public > ownership of capital and public control of its allocation", I'd mention the > concept of the "dictatorship of the proletariat". . . . Enjoyed this, and I'm also going to enjoy watching someone else catch javelins for a while. > . . . > The problem with such a smooth transition is that it begs the question of > the need for any transition at all. If the cure for bourgeois democracy is > simply "more democracy", then we might as well get on with the practical > work on taxes and transfers rather than speculating about alternative > systems. . . . Hear hear. Not just taxes and transfers but regulation, public investment, etc. etc. > . . . > something that doesn't yet exist? Have socialists forgotten how to dream in > colour (or are they just ashamed to try)? One explanation is that time dreaming is time that might be spent more profitably. You have your choice of foregone paths about which to feel guilty. > . . . > And there's the social democratic dilemma in a nutshell: it's not simply > that social-democratic policy prescriptions are objectionable, it's that in > order to be palatable to the "mainstream" they always have to be repackaged > as even more innocuous then they are. Social democratic policies can never > be innocuous enough, at least until they are completely vapid -- at which > point, they are readily dismissed by "the mainstream" as vapid. I think the issue here is the admittedly mysterious one of how the working class mobilizes. My hope is that when it does the social-democratic parties will be much less vapid or they will be supplanted by better social-democrats not unlike my humble self. Cheers, MBS ================================================== Max B. Sawicky Economic Policy Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] Suite 1200 202-775-8810 (voice) 1660 L Street, NW 202-775-0819 (fax) Washington, DC 20036 Opinions here do not necessarily represent the views of anyone associated with the Economic Policy Institute. ===================================================
