Re: Bureaucracy

[Justin Schwartz <jschwart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Father Burns  writes with some amusement that Louis' antibureaucratic
slogan fits in with current talk of government and corporate downsizing. I
thought I'd remind you all that among the other virtues of the Paris
Commune as the political form of a working class regime that Marx touts in
The Civil War in France, one is the promise of cheap government and low
taxes: Karl Marx as Newt Gingrich? Or maybe, sincely he isn't heartless,
as Jack Kemp.

--Justin

On Thu, 18 Jan 1996, Robert Peter Burns wrote:

> Louis criticizes Nove for allegedly failing to recognize
> that capitalist firms (and government agencies) handle
> many complex tasks with the aid of computers.  But is
> it not the case that these same firms and agencies
> employ millions of people in offices to do essentially
> bureaucratic work with or without the aid of computers?
>
> I know there has been a lot of corporate and government
> downsizing lately, but is Louis saying that if only we
> got rid of capitalism all these tasks could be accomplished
> with far fewer people and more use of computers?  Is this
> an attractive slogan for socialism--"Join the Anti-Market
> Revolution and Downsize Faster!"  Capitalist or Communist,
> modern production is immensely complex and requires an
> immense amount of beauracratic labor.  Sure, hours could
> be cut and employment redistributed so as to perform
> that labor with less hassle for all concerned, but it
> would still be an immense and immensely complex task in
> the aggregate.
>
> 2 year countdown starts now, Uncle Lou.
>
> Peter
> rburns@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
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