> John Thornton wrote:
>> I do of course know that under such a plan some people will choose
>> to do
>> nothing but not in sufficient numbers to be a drag on productive work
>> being accomplished.
>>
> Really? How do you know that?
>
> Have you ever heard the saying "We pretend to work and they pretend to
> pay us"? Do you know the origins of that joke? Hint: It wasn't made up
> by andie (or me).
As with the nature and efficiency of "planning" in an ideal community, the ethical principles that would be actualized in it presuppose the existence of a specific kind of individuality and of the developmental conditions the kind requires. Marx makes this point in the preamble to the claim that the ideal distribution principle that would be actualized in such a community is: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!"
That such a principle proved impracticable in the former Soviet Union doesn't invalidate this claim since the requisite individuality and developmental conditions didn't exist there. In fact, they have never existed in any community.
To know whether it would ever be practicable, it's necessary to know whether the ontological, anthropological and psychological ideas on which it's based are true. For instance, is it true that human being is the being whose "nature" is the potential to become fully rationally self-determined?
Ted