>--- John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
><<I can pose the same question in reverse. Why do you
>care how much another has if you have all your needs met additionally you
>have no more unmet wants (or the possibility of such anyway) than
>everyone else? In this system you will have not one bit less than anyone
>else. >>
>
>I would like to belive the above is possible but I just
>dont see how the only incentive can be "brotherly love".
>That might work for a month or two after a revolution,
>but over people would tire of being Stakonovites and
>demanding incentive for working harder than another
>person. [Thomas]
There is more than brotherly love involved. Pride in doing your job counts for something. The desire not to be seen as a worthless piece of shit by almost everyone is a decent incentive also. I am aware that it has a hippy drippy love and goodness sound to it. If you knew me you would know that this description does not describe me or my beliefs. Stop projecting the pathological behaviors of persons in an oppressive society on all future generations. You keep imagining peoples behavior as if you were going to take people from todays dysfunctional fucked up society and simply plop them down in an egalitarian one. It doesn't work that way. We lose the baggage bit by bit and build such a society as we are able. This thread was about one possible way a just society would function. It is not a roadmap to that place. The roadmap is just as important but has remained undescribed up to this point.
>How are you going to feel when you show up at the
>airport only to find out that the pilot decided to
>stay at home since it "really doesnt matter one way or
>the other"? [Thomas]
Why would the person who spent considerable time and energy training to be a pilot, who was trusted by society to function in that role, just chuck his respect for others along with his good name in the ashcan because he wanted to stay home and watch TV? It just doesn't make sense to imagine humans behaving this way in significant numbers. People get ill, flights are delayed and cancelled today, these things happen and always will. Why the description "it really doesn't matter one way or the other"? What "it" doesn't matter and why doesn't it matter? Why don't pilots save their money working for a few years at $100,000 per year and then just walk off the job after 6 years and just not show up for a flight one day saying "fuck it"? This question makes as much sense as yours. They don't do this primarily because it is stupid. If everyone had a guaranteed income why would they suddenly become more stupid too?
>There was a thread on here about JIT and how logistics.
>Can you imagine the ensuing nightmare if John's system
>got put in place? Certainly we need to get away from
>hyper-consumerism but the goal is not to reduce people
>to a primitive standard of living...but to raise most
>of the people's standard of living. That would be
>impossible without some incentives.
>
>-Thomas
There is nothing I have written that suggests I believe in any kind of primitivism. Dismissing primitivism as an unviable future is in all probability wise but if you wish to take issue with what I've proposed do so on the actual idea proposed rather than on your baseless projection. The ensuing nightmare of primitivism is your fantasy. It would hardly be dictated by the terms I've laid out. I think the society I have described is going to need some fairly sophisticated machinery in order to function properly. There would most probably be fewer widgets and probably less waste too.
John Thornton
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