On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 9:10 PM, David Shemano <[email protected]>wrote:
> I have asked this question before on this list (with not much success), > but when we think of freedom in marxist terms, is the life of the wealthy > under capitalism a guide to what life will be like for all under communism? > In other words, is the problem with the life of the wealthy under > capitalism that such a life is not a good life for the wealthy individual, > or that it is a good life but limited to the few and that is unjust? The > quote below from Mills indicates that he would tend to agree that the life > of the wealthy is a good life. Related to this question is the question > of what will happen when working hours are significantly reduced. If we > look, for example, at the lives of women married to wealthy men, reduced > hours (in fact, the absolute lack of need to work at all) means more time > at the country club, gym and mall. Is that a life of freedom in marxist > terms? > There is a certain sleight of hand involved here that libertarians often resort to. Wealth means two very different things depending on whether you are talking about a Scarcity Society or an Affluent Society. In a Scarcity Society, wealth basically means freedom from want - of food, shelter, health and other basic needs. Any reasonable person would want this for themselves and for everyone. In an Affluent Society like the world we live in, wealth means power - the ability to deny other people freedom from want. Wealth in an Affluent Society is sociopathic at its core. Libertarians perpetrate an intellectual fraud by deliberately conflating these two notions of wealth. They do not - indeed cannot - defend the idea of wealth in a society where there is more than enough for everyone, so they pretend that we are living in a Scarcity Society. This is most commonly accomplished using the argument that "human desires are infinite and insatiable". That is complete nonsense. Humans can only eat a finite amount and consume a finite amount. The only truly unlimited desires are the sociopathic ones. -raghu.
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