> I don't get why this seems so implausible to Chuck. I don't think
> there would be any problem producing and distributing "high" tech
> in a socialist world. Here's my (personal) take on this: when my
> daughter was born, her kidneys didn't function. She was in
> intensive care for six weeks. Most of the equipment that kept her
> alive--the ventilator, the IV tubes, the peritoneal dialysis
> equipment--was made out of plastic. She is now a happy 13-year
> old girl who watches (too much?) Court TV and wants to get A's
> in junior high so she can be a lawyer when she grows up.
>
> If you said to me, look, you can do a shift a week in the
> plastics factory to produce the equipment that saved your
> daughter, or we can shut down the factory and other infants
> with kidney problems will die, you wouldn't need to strong
> arm me. I'd be there. So would everyone else in my family.
>
> Why is it so hard to believe that people will want to do things
> for the common good, especially when they see the positive
> results in their own lives? Is our conception of human
> nature so stunted by the capitalist ideology of self-interested
> individuals that leftists can't imagine how people would
> be happy and willing to work for the benefit of one another?
This doesn't seem implausible at all to me. I think that people with health problems and other basic needs will have lots of motivation to do the things required to maintain the stuff for their health needs. And I think that family, friends, and unrelated people would be willing to help out. I'd be willing to spend a few hours a week doing things to make sure that my neighbors have things for their health needs (as long as that is for people who haven't made lifestyle choices, such as smoking, which have ruined their health).
On the other hand, this kind of decentralized mutual aid is NOT going to translate into a society of people spending their lives in factories--no matter how nicely they are run--to keep some kind of Western consumer lifestyle going. I view human nature as being pretty positive, but I maintain that free humans aren't going to engage in the kinds of sacrifice to keep post-industrial capitalism going like much of the left thinks they will.
Chuck0