> 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?)
The answer would seem to be that, if it can't be done by voluntary co-operation, then it won't be done. The toilets would go uncleaned and they would suffer the ensuing hygiene problems. But I would have thought that at least some would see the mutual benefits of regularly cleaning the toilets, perhaps leaving the uncleaned toilets for those who don't want to bother.
We could generalize from this as the answer to the "free-rider problem" in socialism, though it is clear that some people are more perturbed by this than the free-riders under capitalism (i.e. the capitalist class).
-- Lew