On Sun, 26 Dec 2004, snit snat wrote:
> I always wonder about the DoL thing in thinking about what a socialist future
> might look like. While I agree that the details must be worked out as move in
> that directions--nodding to Carrol's "cookshops of the future," it still
> seems that there is such a disagreement among those of us on the left on this
> particular issue, that it's hard to imagine any easy answers.
Yeah, I'm ambivalent about DofL: efficient, yet stultifying. One thing I've noticed even socialist dreamers worrying about is how we make an "efficient" society without unbridled capitalist exchange. It's important to keep in mind we don't have to prioritize efficiency like a capitalist does. If the economy does not have to produce huge surpluses for the capitalists to expropriate, we can tolerate a substantial degree of inefficiency in economic activities and still effectively distribute goods and services to everyone.
Thus I see no need for intense DofL in a socialist world. Sure, workers will be less efficient than their counterparts in the U. S. today, but working conditions will be more humane and interesting. (To update Adam Smith's point, workers will not be "dumbed down" by cleaning people's toilets all day, year after year.)
Miles