David,
Your question presumes markets are anathema to socialists and I agree that
is a fair assumption with regard to "traditional marxists". There are also
market socialists, such as Justin Schwartz on this list. I happen to hold
a third position, which is more or less agnostic toward markets. I would
argue that under capitalism markets are an expression of production
relations. Since production relations would be different under socialism,
markets wouldn't have the same importance but they may continue to have
some residual social function, such as garage sales have today. In other
words, they wouldn't be a matter of life or death.
I don't think that we will change production relations simply by outlawing
markets. But the existence or persistance of markets is not the same as
the claim that in every circumstance markets will produce a "more
efficient" outcome. That claim relies on the tautology of first of all
defining the market outcome as the standard for efficiency and secondly
discovering (what a surprise!) that markets are best at achieving that
standard.
David Shemano asked:
> What is the implication for your various analyses from the widespread
> existence of black markets? Black markets have existed not only with
> respect to specific commodities (drugs, alcohol, etc.), but in places such
> as prisons, Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet Bloc. I will bet there are
> even black markets in North Korea, for goodness sake.
>
> Is that an interesting factual phenomena from your perspective? Is it
> relevant to whether markets are natural and inherent in human relations, or
> merely artificial creations?
Tom Walker
Sandwichman and Deconsultant
Bowen Island
(604) 947-2213
