Same old, same old

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 2:12 PM -0800 1/28/03, Michael Perelman wrote:
>  > I think one thing we need to think about with the tradeoff between
>>  efficiency and other social needs is the incredible economic capacity
>>  of industrial societies.  Auto factories are running at less than
>>  50% capacity; about 2% of the population can produce more food than
>>  260 million people in the U. S. can eat; and so on.  I think this
>>  kind of excess capacity buys us more wiggle room in the efficiency
>>  department than Justin assumes.
>>
>  > Miles
>
>I made the same argument in Transcending the Economy.

Very true, and yet, having observed, for instance, what the enemies 
of Chavez and Bolivarians did to the oil industry and national 
economy in Venezuela, I suspect that they would rather wreck what 
they have than hand it over to us.  Also, every time a revolution 
happens, a sizable segment of technical intellectuals appear to 
desert the nation, leaving some crucial sectors of production and 
social reproduction understaffed.  On top of other problems, there 
will be embargoes, economic sanctions, covert attempts at 
destabilization, etc. by foreign powers.

It is possible that eventually a socialist economy can surpass a 
capitalist one in efficiency and productivity, especially if we 
measure them by how it satisfies human needs and desires of all, not 
just the privileged, but it is likely that we'll face a protracted 
period of uphill struggles just trying to bring back the level of 
output up to the pre-revolutionary peak.

-- 
Yoshie

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