[PEN-L:8725] Re: RE: Leisure and Social Welfare (was: Thomas Friedman an economist?)

[Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'll take a break from work to respond to Max, who writes: >One departure
from this is what theory might be contrasted with NC in this vein.  There
is no marxian counterpart to NC welfare theory, beyond some profound
generalities and some bromides, as to the allocation problem.  For
instance, in the latter vein I had a long argument w/Devine as to whether
democratic control of planning (sic) had any intrinsically defensible
economic advantages, though it does have some democratic ones.  There's
more juice in market socialism, as far as this question goes.<

I don't know what debate Max is referring to. My concern is that
_democratic control_ over the planners is absolutely necessary. Market
socialism -- by which we mean workers' control in a market setting -- has
its plusses and minuses, as I note in my recent excessively long reply to
Louis P. and Mike Y.

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html