Looking Forward. By Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel

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  4. Participatory Consumption

 

I would like to believe that people have an instinct for freedom, that they really want to control their own affairs. They don't want to be pushed around, ordered, oppressed, etc., and they want a chance to do things that make sense, like constructive work in a way that they control, or maybe control together with others. I don't know any way to prove this. It's really a hope about what human beings are like -a hope that if social structures change sufficiently, those aspects of human nature will be realized.

 -Noam Chomsky

Language and Politics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We want a socialist revolution with human nature as it is now, with human nature that cannot dispense with subordination, control, and managers.

-Lenin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn That those to whom evil is don, Do evil in return.

 -W. H. Auden

 September 1, 1939

 

 

 

 



 

To Consume or Be Consumed?

 

CAP: Why put obstacles in the way of people fulfilling themselves however they see fit? Your normative, busybody, socially responsible consuming sounds like torture.

 

PE: I'm just saying that we should consider our fellow citizens...

 

CAP: But you say people should judge one another's requests...

 

PE: I say consumption has private and public effects and that we ought to pay attention to both. I'm also saying that if some people have budgets thousands of times smaller than others, the fact that the poor can buy whatever they want within their budgets doesn't achieve much.

 

MARK: But once we eliminate capitalist ownership we eliminate gross inequality. And the market harmonizes private interests so they coincide with social interests. It is unnecessary as well as counter-productive to intrude on personal choice.

 

PE: The market doesn't deal efficiently with nonrenewable resources or account for how what happens in one plant affects others or even for the way the things I do affect you...

 

MARK: But what about privacy? Cap's right. Why should anyone know what I'm consuming?

 

PE: You aren't listening. Each person's list of consumption requests is accessible to others, but with no name attached. The total value you request is public and if you want to over-consume or borrow, that's public with people assessing the reasons you give. But why do you care if others comment if they feel your choices may be harmful? Your identity is secret. Your privacy is preserved. Only the requests, with no name attached, are public. And your neighbors cannot stop you from ordering what you want as long as your total request is commensurate with your work effort. Besides, aren't you impinging on my interests when you consume scotch and gin till you are nothing but a social parasite? What harm can come from others confronting what they believe is counter-productive behavior in hopes that doing so would help set the anonymous person associated with the behavior straight?

 

We're not talking about a state censor. There is no big brother, just harmless neighbors. In fact, there is no state at all, at least in the traditional sense of that word. People wouldn't want to waste their time assessing anonymous requests for food and books. But if some disturbed zealot does intrude, is it such a big deal? It will be annoying, but social pressure will certainly limit it. Occasional prying is a small price to pay for a system promoting solidarity.


It is amazing that you get so bent out of shape about social intrusiveness that can't be motivated by jealousy or inequality while you so easily tolerate inequality, advertising, competition, and alienation. You live in a society built on everyone being motivated by busybody information about one another...

 

CENT: But you think everyone should consume the same.

 

PE: The value of what every citizen consumes would be roughly equal. But what's in the equal bundle we each get will vary greatly from person to person...

 

CAP: What incentive is there to work?

 

PE: Yes, you can't get rich, though you can work harder to get more. But you are right, material incentives play a minimal role in our system. The incentive to work well is to fulfill your responsibilities and earn social esteem.