>Yes. Management and administration is a vital part of a complex industrial
society. But perhaps you can't conceive of any way of co-ordinating people
in a workforce that does not necessitate the manager having coercive power
over subordinates.)
that's precisely what parecon proposes. were you not paying attention? what you seem to have trouble with is the comparative rigidity of parecon to your extremely hypothetical system.
Man there's a tremendous backlog here. Exams were brutal.
Btw I didn't respond to your last post, bill, because you went out of your way to insult me for having what work i can find. Perhaps we should _all_ be unemployed?
particularly offensive was your suggestion that I am "happy" to wash dishes out of intellectual laziness or outright stupidity.
Some responses, more or less at random...
You said you don't tip because it's demeaning.
First, keep in mind that the world is not Australia. in America, many service workers make more than half of their money from tips. For waitresses and waiters, tips serve to bring them up to the minimum wage because the employers pay about 2.15 an hour or thereabouts.
Second, yes, the tipping system is demeaning, but following your logic all employers should stop paying their employees as well, since we would agree that the wage system is almost as bad. Also, i can't help but notice that your principled stand on the tipping issue puts more money in ol' bill's pocket.
Another thing. You say that all service type work is inherently demeaning even if equally shared among all and well recompensed besides. I disagree, but consider the following scenario:
we have a parecon. We like to eat out so we vote to keep the service industry, but because it's a parecon every able-bodied person is now doing a fair share of service-industry work. Former professionals, office workers, construction workers etc find themselves spending, i don't know, 5 hours a week doing what they did in the summer as teenagers. they suddenly realize that all these restaurants and movie theaters aren't necessary, dammit, and besides they want more free time. at the same time, there are lots of bill bartletts running around, advocates for service-industry abolitionism. the bills organize among the pissed off professionals and former service workers alike, get a movement together, etc. We hold a referrendum, poof, no more service industry, everyone cooks their own damn ramen noodles or whatever.
show me how any of this is inconsistent with a parecon.
now, last time you deflected this question with an insult, and it was a pretty low blow too. Here it is again: "Should we become the servants of those who choose not to work in bill bartlettland?"
would you care to respond now?
>What? Now you want housework police to monitor every home?
he didn't say anything like that. what's more i think you are aware of this.
> Yes, I think a few couch potatoes is a small price to pay for avoiding a
police state.
on my shift i have another guy helping me. what if i decide, fuck you man i'm gonna sit on my ass and have some hotwings while you do all the work and at the end of the day i'll clock out just like you and collect my 70 bucks (the tips i get mean i earn very good hourly wages for a dishwashwer). Should he be cool with this? If he tries to curb this behavior does this constitute a "police state?"
Another example. I have two little speakers on my computer, but they can get really loud. Let's say I decide to turn them all the way up and play "die goldene pave" by Chava Alberstein and the Klezmatics at 4 am during exam week. Klezmer music everywhere. windowpanes rattle, plaster falls from the ceiling. People see their GPAs evaporating before their very eyes. If someone comes over to tell me shut it the hell off, am i to conclude i am living in a police state? once again, you cannot have complete freedom in the absence of magic. rules that protect the rights of others do not a police state make. this is a truism. i feel slightly embarrassed at having to repeat it here.
and that, i do b'leev, is my limit for the day ^_^