Scarcity

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Mon Apr 9 07:46:28 PDT 2001


I said:

Short of a cataclysmic
>>disaster, we will never be hunter-gathereras, and anyone who
>>davocates reducing (as opposed to, say, rearranging) our needs and
>>wants, will find a cold audience from contemprary workers an
>>oppressed people.
>>
>>--jks
>
>We will never be hunter-gatherers, to be sure, but will we remain
>Shoppaholics Anonymous under communism as well?
>
>Pre-capitalist peoples experienced wants created by the
>pre-capitalist modes of production; and we have unlimited wants &
>therefore scarcity created by the capitalist mode of production with
>its drive of M-C-M' -- "Accumulate, accumulate! that is Moses and the
>prophets!" Will communism not create wants in a manner different
>from capitalism, since under communism we presumably won't have the
>same Moses & prophets as capitalism's?
>

Sure, As Marx said, new social systems create new needs. As I said, we will doubtless rearrange ours. Btw, any social system creates its won scarcities, but just because they are in part created by that social system doesn't mean that we can get rid of scarcity as such if we change the social system. We will just change its forms.

--jks _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com



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