>>> furuhashi.1 at osu.edu 04/11/01 09:36PM >>>No, I don't disagree with you on the above, but if scarcity &
unlimited wants are human conditions, as opposed to capitalist
conditions, then, regardless of how much you minimize necessary
labor, scarcity will still loom as large as ever, since there will be
always new wants that could have been met (= opportunity costs).
Especially if you take a view that the socialist relations of
production remove the fetter on productive forces & hence remove the
fetter on the production of wants as well, you might even argue that
scarcity will be _a bigger problem_ under socialism than capitalism.
Once you begin to ask what is _really_ necessary labor, though, one moves beyond the calculation of opportunity costs, in that one leaves behind the idea of infinite substitutability. One enters into the realm of politics proper, instead of "economics."
((((((((
I agree with Yoshie's interrogation of the concept of infinite scarcity. There will be limited scarcity in communism. In the Econ and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Karl Marx says something like humans are inherently suffering beings in that there is always something more than that they have that they may want. But this does not mean that these unfulfilled wants and the scarcity and suffering that this implies must be predominant in the life, sense and sensibility of individuals or anybody. First, the provisions for natural historic physiological needs such as eating, sleeping, breathing, exercise, productive activity, need not be scarce or suffered by anyone. Beyond this, a myriad of other historically developed wants may be met, such that people may feel happy. On the other hand, there will always be contradictions and struggle and challenges in existence, i.e. new forms of suffering and unfulfilled want even as we abolish old forms, and that's life ,as much as overcomi! ng and limiting scarcity and suffering.
Also, Marx specifically claims that humans are only free or fully capable in developing a rich pallet of wants in the absence of lack of or without scarcity with respect to use-values to meet basic physiological needs.
Charles
__________
>Maybe it is because I am getting older that at my back I always hear
>Time's winged chariot hurrying near.
Don't you think human beings can approach the question of aging in a different way than how we do now? In many pre-capitalist societies, elders enjoyed respect, power, & authority; capitalism, in contrast, puts a premium upon youth. Can't socialism bring about an attitude toward age different from both?
Yoshie