> Well, are you talking about with or without markets? Albert & Hahnel
> envision nonmarket arrangements with such computer links. The problem is
> that while it may provide information about current demand, it doesn't help
> with (a) ensuring accuracy, since people may accidentally overstate
> (typically) their needs--I am bad myself at guessing what I will want, (b)
> making long term plans about use of resources, (c) coordinating competing
> demands, or (d) choosing among production methids. So it would be useful
> whatever kind of system one has, but it's not a panacea. It doesn'tr forcea
> choice between market and nonmarket systems, or otherwisre settle the issue,
> and it's not a substitute for chooseing theright method or mix of economic
> coordination.
Many of my anarchist friends have been seduced by the economic ideas of Albert & Hahnel. Their theories are interesting, but they suffer from the same aesthetic pretensions that brought down Soviet centralized planning (see "Seeing like a State"). In real life, on the local level, economics is more messy and organic. Albert and Hahnel are trying to advance a pretty alternative to capitalism, but it still reflects an overly technological, Western view of economic activity.
<< Chuck0 >>
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INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).