Report from Z Media Institute 98 (fwd)

Justin Schwartz jschwart at freenet.columbus.oh.us
Wed Jun 24 13:15:20 PDT 1998


On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, James Farmelant wrote:


> I think its fair to say that Justin's critique of albert & Hahnel is a
> Hayekian
> one.

Right. That is, correct.

Justin expresses the same skepticism over the ability of A & Hs'
> planning scheme to achieve accurate data collection as did Hayek over
> proposed alternatives to the market. Justin proposes a form of market
> socialism as an alternative to both capitalism and varieties of socialism
> based either on central planning or the participatory planning proposed
> by A & H.

Though not here. I'm open to planned models if they can deal with the problems I raise.

However, Hayek as I recall did not think much better of market
> socialism than he did of the centrally planned varieties (witness his
> debates
> with Oskar Lange).

Lange is not, in fact, a market socialist. His system of shadow pricing is an alternative to a market.

Furthermore, as the concept of market socialism has
> evolved it seems apparent that its proponents' models have increasingly
> come to resemble a reformed capitalism (see John Roemer's *A Future
> for Socialism*).
>

But I support a Schweickart worker-controlled market socialism. The Roemer model is a very different story.

However, I don't want a refernfum on MS. I would like to hear how planned socialists deal with the sort of problems I address.

--jks



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