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Harmony Hussey
Joined: Feb 11, 2006
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If not capitalism or socialsm, then what? - Parecon!
February 11, 2006 - 02:14 AM
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Capitalism is obviously not working out for the world. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
And socialism, despite its beautiful vision, failed to deliver what it promised, due to 4 fatal flaws (1, the difficulty of central planning; 2, trouble getting people motivated to work hard; 3, no incentive to invent things; 4, the liklihood of corruption when the economy is centralized.)
SO DOES THIS MEAN THERE IS NO HOPE? DOES THIS MEAN THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE?
NO!
THERE IS HOPE; THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE! PARECON is that.
Chech out a summary of parecon at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parecon
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agnivo chakrabarty
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Re: If not capitalism or socialsm, then what? - Parecon!
March 27, 2006 - 07:52 AM
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well i would say marxism is the best option.both marx and gandhi believed that the real power should lie in the hands of the people.power should be completely decentralised.the composition of the political system can be diagrammaticaly represented in the following way according to me-rural body-block-division-province or state and finally the nation.this way the overbearing power of politics can be minimised by decentralisation..............but i always thought that fascism was not as bad as people made it out to be........obviously minus the dictatorship.coz hitler wasn't exactly cool.ok adios.
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Jonathon P. Karelse
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Re: If not capitalism or socialsm, then what? - Parecon!
March 30, 2006 - 06:01 AM
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I would respectfully suggest that whereas souljour writes "Capitalism is obviously not working out for the world... the rich are getting richer... etc.", there are a couple of rather significant oversights in this statement. Let me say before proceding, however, that I am no blind proponent of capitalism. I am only pointing out these oversights because of the inherent dangers of speaking about any complex socio-economic model in monolithic terms.
First, it is patently incorrect to say "the poor are getting poorer." To cite a growing disparity between rich and poor (which could itself be argued) is one thing, but capitalism, despite its disparate distribution of wealth, has as a model generally improved the standard of living for all classes, if only marginally.
Second, this "alternative" called Parecon is subject to the same "fatal flaws" you list as having undermined socialism (though I would suggest Participatory Economics is socialism by another name). Insofar as it is comprised of councils - just like communism - they are subject to the difficulties of central planning, and the inherent greed and corruption of humanity.
I am not writing this to be pugilistic. It strikes me that in many circles - and often for good reason - "capitalism" has become such a pejorative that it draws the pre-fabricated type of statements that began this thread. Capitalism in many of its incarnations is imperfect, but its alternative is both impracticable and ill-advised in modernity.
PS - Gandhi didn't believe for a second that power should lie in the hands of the people. He recognized that to keep power in a post-British Raj India it would be necessary to connect with key grass-roots institutions. He also completely alienated others (for example the Khalsa Diwan in the Punjab). The INC that he helped create was elitist and antidemocratic for the 50 years that they kept a stranglehold on Indian politics.
- Jonathon Karelse
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