Re: [Marxism] Cyber-communisim?

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 12/19/03 6:01:30 PM Pacific Standard Time,
elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:

Incidentally, I don't think that if the price of CDs was $1.99, or that if
90% of the money went to the artists, that the extent of downloading would
appreciably change; in other words I think what people have to say is a
rationalization for their actions, but not really the truth. The truth is 
people just
like free stuff (kind of like I'm using this free email account!). I don't think
it has anything to do with their
opinion of private property.

Comment

Exactly. People like free stuff, which is in fact an opinion about private
property relations. My individual personal enjoyment versus property rights
manifested in corporations. In this sense we are dealing with a spontaneous
objective process as opposed to a conspiracy.

Then again, at $1.99 for a high quality disc, the impact on the socially
necessary labor involved in downloading and transferring music to disc would be
impacted. Really. People would still engage in theft for many reasons, but your
average music store would in turn have to transform itself into an
entertainment center for lots of young people just hanging out and partying 
with their
peers.

The American people, or at any rate a large section of them do not say, "I
want communism." Rather, what is stated is that "the price of the CD's do not
express my individual understanding of the value of this commodity. With this
new technology I am not going to pay shit for music, when I can get it free."
Free is not free because there is the cost of hardware and software and disc
and storage and transferring the music into different formats for ones home and
car. What the American people increasing want is cooperation in their
favor/flavor.

This is not class consciousness or anything like that but a growing mass
social consciousness.

"F*uck the record companies and the artist can make their money touring,
repacking their products with maybe posters and writings on the group and songs
and interesting things to read about the artist."

A section of the American public is already saying "F*uck the medical
industry."

The question may make more sense if not posed as the downloading of cars and
food, but rather the labor content of cars and food versus their price in
relationship to what the mass of wage earners receive as wages.

If we could download cars in a fiction universe, the fiction capitalist would
charge us twenty-thousand and up for license plates and thousands in
insurance. The point is that the law of value governs the totality of the 
exchange
process and as technology lowers the value of products across the board an
irreversible crisis appears in the system of buying and selling based on 
purchase
and sell of labor power.

Peace

Melvin P.

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