Fair enough!
> So for now I just have one question. For me (and, I
think, Marx) an exploitive class structure is one in which the direct
producers (workers) do not appropriate and decide how to distribute the
surplus that they produce. I assume that parecon is supposed to be a
non-exploitive class system/society. By my definition, such a society
is one in which the workers collectively appropriate and decide what to
do with the surplus. Is parecon, as you have developed it, consistent
with my definition of a non-exploitive class structure? If so, where,
and how?
I would imagine as you mean these words parecon is -- though what has gone under the name socialism is not.
In a parecon those who are affected influence decisions in proportion as they are affected.
It would not be non exploitation -- or at least, it would not be ideal or even desirable -- for workers in a plant to decide to dump toxic waste in a neighborhood in order to cut corners and reduce costs, so as to maintain or enlarge market share...nor would it be desirable for them to hire managers to rule their workplaces, compelled by the need to cut costs by literally oppressing themselves, lest they go out of business, again due to market dictates -- all this even without capitalists.
What is desirable, parecon argues, is that for decisions which impact diverse people, those people should impact the decisions, and should do so with appropriate influence.
These are the norms parecon fulfills -- self management.
I could dodge the details and say, of course, in a parecon the people who do the work decide their labors, which is true -- but it is better than that -- there are no class divisions, and we all impact economic decisions in part due to being impacted by them in our work, but also in part due to being impacted by them as consumers.
It is just too simple to say workers control work. Does this mean I can decide as per an earlier query -- to be an airplane pilot despite bad eyes, or a shortstop despite crummy reflexes, etc.> Does it mean workers can decide to produce any old thing, regardless of consumer desires? No on both counts. But, within the rubric of meeting needs and developing potentials of consumers...doing socially valued labor...does it mean workers determine their own labors without a layer of owners or of what I call coordinators calling the shorts above them? Yes.
The key institutional vehicles for this are workers and consumers councils linked by participatory planning and utilizing self management decision making -- plus a division of labor built on balanced job complexes and remuneration for effort and sacrifice.
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