review of bhaskar

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Wed Oct 27 15:31:46 PDT 1999


If you stretch the definition of planning enough, it becomes meaningless.

If the Gov is not telling enterprises how much to produce, how many people to employ, or what price to charge (either in a democratic fashion, or some other way), you don't have planning in the socialist sense. We could conceive of a type of socialism without planning. But anything short of a reasonably strict definition of planning is not socialism; it's social democracy or corporatism.

So I welcome you all to social-democracy, though I can't vouch for how long I'll be around myself. (I'm teetering between populism and anarcho- syndicalism.)

mbs

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Certainly U.S. ideology is rich with laissez-faire, but actual practice has been lots different - from the canal-building, railroad subsidies, and protective tariffs of the 19th century through the Pentagon-driven industrial policies of the post-World War II years. The industries where U.S. firms are most competitive today are typically those with the longest, deepest history of state involvement - computers, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, agribusiness. We just don't talk about it much.

Doug



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