<HTML><HTML>In a message dated 11/23/04 9:26:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, lbo-talk-request@lbo-talk.org writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">The problem with socialism is that it belongs to the genre of economic determinism - a belief that property rights cum self interest will solve most if not all social problems, from racism and sexism to a good life. Milton Friedman's _Capitalism and Freedom_ is yet another variation on the same theme.  That trope is fundamentally false for two reasons: human agency and path dependence.  Human agency is what ultimately defines not only the uses and gratifications of any particular good or asset but also the cognitive frames and rules under which these uses and gratifications are judged.  Path dependence denotes the weight of past experiences, habits, sunk costs and vested interests that affects the process of judging not only the uses and gratifications but the forms and shapes of goods and commodities.  It is thus an exercise in futility trying to determine the course of human interaction from the properties of objects used in that interaction. Any claim that property relations known as "capitalism" are the root cause of all social ills we experience and that the changing these property relations to "socialism" will bring universal happiness has the same epistemological standing as religious beliefs in the healing power of prayer or magic properties of fetishes.  Wojtek</BLOCKQUOTE> Is this a parody of pomo style, or what? </HTML>