Miles Jackson wrote:
>
>> I've said it before, but the point is worth repeating: in terms of GDP,
> about 1/2 of the work that we do in the U. S. to sustain our society is
> done outside the wage system. This demonstrates we do not need direct
> economic incentives to get important social labor done; we just need
> socialization that a particular form of unpaid labor is important and
> meaningful.
Those who really believe that compensation is needed must have been blind most of their live to what's going on around them. In almost any office or other workplace eif you have eyes to see it is easy to see people working _not_ for the wage (which they culd continue to collect even if they slacked off much more) but to maintain their social position with fellow workers or simply out of real concern not to cause extra work for other s OR (and this always bugs me) because they incorporate the needs of the employer in their own thinking. And the fact that every work place does have slackers is most notable not for the presence of the slackers but for the extent to which they are _noticed_ by others. If slacking off were common it would draw such attention.
Anyhow, for reasons I gave in an earleir post, this whole question is nonsense. There is no real problem at all except for the suerstitions generated by capitalist society.
Socialism might or might not work, but if it doesn't work its failure will have nothing whatever to do with lack of "altruism."
Carrol