> When I hear people say this I have ask, what are you in favor of
> then? Gosplan? Gosplan plus fiber optics? When Radical Chains
> criticizes Bhaskar & Co. for failing to reject the value form, what
> do they want? Cooperatives producing locally? I just don't see how
> you can run a complex industrialized society without retaining some
> form of market exchange at any time in the foreseeable future. I'm
> willing to be convinced of the contrary, but I'm skeptical.
as i recall, the radical chains review took bhaskar to task for being "uncritical of the value form", specifically, the proposition of abolishing "the market in capital but retain[ing] the market in labour" at the same time as wanting to "guarantee a basic wage 'irrespective of work'." that is, something must give way: "If needs can be met without recourse to wage labour people will not exchange their labour power for a wage. To this extent the law of value is partially suspended. Yet in so far as society is still subject to the pressure of the law of value, to the extent that there is still a market in labour power, people must be forced to work. Administrative structures will proliferate as the socialist regime strives to make the recognition of needs compatible with the discipline of the law of value. If the regime is not to succumb to crisis, the extent of needs recognition will have to be reduced. Necessarily the socialist regime comes into opposition against the class of producers".
actually, it reminds me a little of rubin's analyses of keynsianism and full employment.
Angela _________