robbo203 wrote:Just noticed
robbo203 wrote:
Just noticed your comment above. I don’t want to put words in your mouth but are you suggesting that a socialist society would be unable to determine whether a luxury yacht, say, was more important than an ambulance? Agreed, these determinations are subjective but then that is the whole point, isn’t it – its a question of values and values cannot really be measured. We can say that one thing is more “valuable” than another but we cannot definitively say by how much. Even von Mises conceded that some things cannot be subject to calculation
It depends on how many yachts or ambulances society already has or needs. A socialised mode of production requires and makes possible a free flow of information, this is what will guide production. Producers and consumers (who are of course the same people) will vote with their feet as to what they want to produce and consume, that’s how society will determine what is important.I don’t think we have much to gain by trying to incorporate spurious models from capitalist economics into projections of how a future society may work.Sorry if this sounds brief but I don’t have the time to write long forum posts at the minute.