[lbo-talk] To each according to work

[Miles Jackson]

Bill Bartlett wrote:
> At 12:41 AM -0700 19/4/08, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> 
> 
>>There is nothing wrong with coercing people to work (by formal or 
>>perhaps, as JS Mill onserved in another context, even more effective 
>>informal) methods, any more than there is with coercing people to 
>>pay taxes to provide public goods --
> 
> 
> Except that the social mechanisms necessary to coerce people corrupt 
> those whose function it is to do the coercing. In a social system 
> based on class rule, all those things are a necessary evil, but in a 
> socialist society such coercion, whether by brute force or economic 
> force, would be unnecessary.

I have to say I want to side with Bill and John on this one, but I'm 
don't follow the argument here.  How will a socialist society ensure 
that all of the useful and necessary work is done?  Will there just be 
enough diversity in interests and preferences so that all of the work 
will be accomplished without coercion?  (Are there enough people 
intrinsically interested in cleaning public toilets so that we need no 
social or economic coercion to make sure all the public toilets are 
cleaned?)

Miles