Congrats Jim. I think you have made a very compelling case why any socialist economy is unsustainable. After all if workers are not motivated by starvation and pressured by the reserve army of the unemployed they will slack off and become unproductive. And if capitalists are not allowed to make money without working through economic rents they will not invest or take any risk.
If I understand Charles Brown correctly, he argues selfish incentives for the individual are not essential for production. But is there a successful (modern) example of this anywhere? -raghu. On Dec 6, 2007 8:37 AM, Jim Devine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I never went to the old Soviet Union. But my old friend, the expert > on the USSR (who was a socialist, by the way), said that the Soviet > anti-poverty efforts were incomplete, applying most completely to > those in the big cities. He also pointed out that the USSR did a much > better job of fighting poverty than the US ever did (and I agree). > > By the way, he visited the USSR several times. One of the most > startling revelations was that in Leningrad (now called St. Pete, > after the Floridian retirement center) most or almost all of the > heating was totally centralized. That is, all apartments got heat from > the same government-owned plants. The government tended to turn the > heat on a bit too late in November for most people's taste. Brrr... > > Another fact he noticed: the USSR's official press emphasized the > facts of high unemployment in the US. This seems to have been part of > effort to get people to work harder and to be more loyal to the > government, by telling them that life could be worse in the US. It was > the mirror-image of propaganda efforts in the US (which emphasized the > USSR's inadequate protection of free speech and the like). As usual, > the most effective propaganda has a basis in actual facts rather than > being invented.
