|
"Larry knows that if he requests a lot of goods that require work
at below average job complexes, he is implicitly changing the societal average
work complex and his own labor require ments. Self interest and collective
solidarity argue against such a request unless he thinks the benefits of
consuming the good in question are worth the extra drudgery."
"People of course have different needs and tastes. But the value
of Larry's consumption bundle calculated according to the lFB-generated
indicative prices and adjusted for MLK s above-average collective consumption
request and his individual status as a borrower against past savings,
implicitly expresses what he thinks a reasonable average consumption bundle
is for all members of society."
|
Determining Personal Consumption Proposals
Since
neighborhood collective consumption mirrors the logic of county collective
consumption, we move to personal consumption requests. To develop a personal
consumption plan, Larry consults the lFB's estimates of indicative prices,
assessments for collective consumption for members of his neighborhood,
average personal consumption estimates, and settles on a
"borrower/loaner" status.
To simplify,
similar products of comparable quality are grouped together so Larry needs to
express preferences for socks, but not for colors or type of socks; for soda,
books, and bicycles, but not for flavors, titles, or styles of each.
Statistical studies enable facilitation boards to break down total requests
for generic types of goods by the percent who will want different types of
records, books, or bicycles. There will no longer be competing brands of each
product, only "product industries" creating diverse styles and
qualities of goods for different purposes,
Larry has
under-consumed relative to his allowance in the past two years and has
decided to even up the balance a bit this year. On the other hand, his
county, MLK, has requested a higher than average county collective
consumption bundle, some of which is being borrowed, but some of which will
be "paid for" in the present by reducing consumption of MLK
residents this year.
Larry knows
there is no point being too modest in his initial proposal-the iteration
process will compel him to lower his final request as necessary. But he
doesn't want to make requests that are outrageously immodest since that would
only lengthen the bargaining process and do little to increase his final
consumption.
Larry also
knows his selections have social implications. It is not that his choice of a
particular kind of food or clothing implies that everyone else should get the
same amount of that product. People of course have different needs and
tastes. But the value of Larry's consumption bundle calculated according to
the IFB-generated indicative prices and adjusted for MLK's above-average
collective consumption request and his individual status as a borrower
against past savings, implicitly expresses what he thinks a reasonable
average consumption bundle is for all members of society. It would be
pointless for Larry to suggest a value too far in excess of what the lFB has
anticipated, unless he thinks it has made a gross underestimation.
So Larry takes his turn at a computer terminal to try out various
combinations of different goods, checking on the total value of his proposed
bundle. The computer contains anticipated averages, indicative prices, and so
on, as well as descriptions of the products and of the work that goes into
their creation. This latter information helps Larry assess whether rote or
dangerous methods must be employed to produce the goods he wants.
Larry knows
that if he requests a lot of goods that require work at below-average job
complexes, he is implicitly changing the societal average work complex and
his own labor requirements. Self interest and collective solidarity argue
against such a request unless he thinks the benefits of consuming the good in
question are worth the extra drudgery. In any event, detailed information
about the production of goods only requires punching a few keys at the
terminal.
As Larry
completes his first proposal, so do other consumers, and all are submitted to
the societal planning data bank where they are summed and processed by lFBs.
New summaries are presented including updated projections of anticipated
indicative prices, average consumption, and the current status of each good.
(We discuss how these new estimates are prepared by lFBs in the next
chapter.) Data banks also include summary documentation from each workplace
and neighborhood describing the logic of their choices to this point in the
process.
|
