On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:44 PM, David B. Shemano <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Division of labor makes sense for high-skill craftsman-like work, but >>> for janitorial work?? I mean, the premise behind your question itself >>> seems to me to be highly questionable.. > > But what if I, an individual living in a socialist society, have no > subjective interest or desire in performing janitorial services? Maybe there > will be a happy coincidence that there will be people who "want" to perform > such services, so I will not "have" to do my share. But what if there is not > such a happy coincidence? Could I be "required" to do something in a > socialist society? If I am "required" to perform such service, there will > have to be a mechanism to "require" me to perform such a service. How would > that mechanism work, and why would not that mechanism be philosophically > incompatible with the experiential status of freedom as opposed to necessity? >
This is like asking "would I be required to wipe my own ass" in a socialist society. And the answer would be "yes". But more seriously, I think what you are referring to is what economists would call a "free-rider" problem. But it only seems like a problem because the economists have a particularly twisted way of looking at the world. Traditional societies somehow found ways to solve many such "problems". It doesn't have to be based only on wage labor. And there doesn't need to be one single formula either. I notice that you didn't ask the question .. but what if people didn't want to clean up after their pets? -raghu. -- "I have a heart of a child... in a jar on my desk." - Stephen King _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
