At 09:54 PM 7/14/2000 -0400,Michael Wright wrote:
>To say that socialist economies cannot succeed
>at technological innovation is bizarre.
>
That was a military crash program. I should have specified consumer goods.
It's true, much of what we produce is unnecessary, consumer junk with the
demand fueled by advertising. The fact that you, Michael or I and I
presume many members of this list can get along without much of it doesn't
translate out into the world.
Most people reject good old bohemian or voluntary poverty. They want stuff.
The inability of the Eastern bloc countries to produce such stuff is one of
the major reasons
communism fell so easily -- and most people in the eastern block countries
celebrated.
I'm not totally cheerful about that. A lot of good stuff -- free day care,
schooling, rough economic equality, health care -- good washed down the
drain with the bath water. But we Americans have the privilege of rejecting
the excessive affluence. Few people in the world have enough of anything to
reject.
Marty Jezer
-- Marty Jezer * 22 Prospect St. * Brattleboro, VT 05301 * p/f 802 257-5644Author: Stuttering: A Life Bound Up in Words (Basic Books) Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel (Rutgers University Press) The Dark Ages: Life in the USA, 1945-1960 (South End Press) Rachel Carson [American Women of Achievement Series] (Chelsea House) Check out my web page: http://www.sover.net/~mjez To subscribe to my Friday commentary, simply request to be put on my mailing list. It's free!
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