Fw: A not Unminor problem for the Left

Ulhas Joglekar ulhasj at bom4.vsnl.net.in
Fri Apr 14 06:57:58 PDT 2000


I suspect that Althusser did not believe that economic relations under socialism would be transparent. See Althussser's passing reference to Rosa Luxemburg's thesis on the 'disappearance of the laws of "political economy" in the socialist regime' in Reading Capital (P.141). Althusser would attribute such a position to the historicist-humanist interpretation of Marx. But Althusser may be a exception to the rule.

I also find it difficult to believe that there is no incentive to lie in a capitalist enterprises. What does a scandal like S & L scandal show, if not consistent lying about that segment of US business.

Ulhas

----- Original Message ----- From: <JKSCHW at aol.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 6:35 PM Subject: Re: A not Unminor problem for the Left


> You miss my point, and also Hayek's. My point was that Hayek calls out
> attention, emphatically, to reasons to care about costs and waste in realw
> orld term, wothout the unrealistic assumptions of Walrasian economics
about
> perfect information and cotsless transactions. You can accept that even if
> you think that compters make planning possible. It is a point Marx missed
> with his idea that economic relations under communism would be transparent
> and his idea taht the unleasing of the forces of production would overcome
> scarcity under communism.
>
> You also miss Heyek's point about planning, which, as you say, is
pragmatic
> and not logical. Hayek was aware of linear programming and he didn't die
so
> long ago. But he would say (did say) this: no matter how powerful your
> computers are, even if they can do the whole input/output matrix for an
> economy in a microsecond, the output is only as good as the input, and
there
> is no way to get the input accurate in the matrix in a purely planned
system.
>
> That is in part because each unit in the planning system has an incentive
to
> lie, to say that it has less resources and capability than it does,a nd
that
> it needs more resources and capability than it does. This is in part
because
> the planning system rewards unbits for meeting targets, and the best way
to
> make sure you meet your target is to say you need more than you in fact do
to
> meet a target you say is lower than the one you can in fact meet. So the
> whole system encourges inaccurate information, promoting shortages and
> bottlenecks, which in turn amplies the effect just described. As the
> programmer's say, garbage in, garbage out.
>
> Hayek calls attention to incentives to gather accurate information. It is
not
> raw compuing power that concerns hiim. It is incentives to get the costs
> right. Market systems create those incentives because individuals profit
by
> accurate information about particular things. Planning systems do
> not--everyone is better off if the information is accurate, but since each
> individual bebefits if it si not, we have a classical n-pesron prisoner's
> dilemma or collective goods problem.
>
> This should be obvious. but it doesn't seem to be, at least it isn't
> understood on the left. I have been waiting for 20 years for someone to
face
> thsi directly and I am still waiting. Maybe you, DD?
>
> --jks
>



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