Scarcity (was Re: Doug's points)

[Gordon Fitch]

Justin Schwartz:
> ... 
> I think a lot of leftists do not even have this deep an answer to the 
> question of scarcity. Many orthodox Marxists deny that scarcity is permanent 
> because they think Marx said so, and that ends the matter. Others suppose 
> that socialized humanity will just want a lot less--this is the leveling 
> down solution of crude communsim that Marx attacked in the Paris 
> Manuscripts.

I think one needs to distinguish between the scarcity driven
by biology, the scarcity driven by tradition and culture,
and the scarcity driven by the institutions of class war and
especially capitalism.  The first was overcome a long time
ago.  The last is, indeed, infinite, because it's manufactured
as required to keep the system going.