Scarcity

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Tue Apr 10 22:07:28 PDT 2001


Justin says:


>>>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.

Doesn't Marx suggest more than that (A) a new social system creates new needs? Isn't it closer to the conception of Marx to say that (B) a new social system creates a new mode of creating & satisfying needs? (A) & (B) are not identical.


>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.

The way you put it makes one think that, in your opinion, scarcity = "human nature" = the "essence" of what is human that assumes different forms according to successive stages of historical progress.

Yoshie



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