planning

[Doug Henwood]

This whole planning debate has gone on without much attention to what 
kind of planning we're talking about. Total, Soviet-style planning, 
with Gosplan and state-owned enterprises? Indicative planning with 
worker-run enterprises with some kind of spontaneous (meaning not 
planned from the center) links between enterprises and enterprises 
and enterprises and customers? Participatory planning a la Albert & 
Hahnel?

I think that the Freudian/Hayekian critique of perfect knowledge does 
make it difficult to imagine a reprise of Gosplan, even a 
cyber-Gosplan. But if we're talking about some kind of postcapitalist 
future, we have to talk about popular control of investment and 
resource allocation using criteria other than private profit 
maximization. So what are we talking about?

Doug