Saturday, June 24, 2006

Looking for Utopia

Both free market socialism and libertarian socialism seem to offer better models for the United Order than communism.
Market socialism has also been used as a name for any attempt by a Soviet-style economy to introduce market elements into its economic system. In this sense, "market socialism" was first attempted during the 1920s in the Soviet Union as the New Economic Policy (NEP), but soon abandoned. Later, elements of "market socialism" were introduced in Hungary (where it was nicknamed "goulash socialism"), Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia (see Titoism) in the 1970s and 1980s. Modern Vietnam and Laos also describe themselves as market socialist systems. The Soviet Union attempted to introduce a market socialist system with its perestroika reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev, but this led to the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
Just a brief return to discussing utopias.

Every time you see a worker managed business, such as small steel mills or some railroads, you are encountering this concept in progress.

It works best in slow economies where technological change has slowed to a crawl. It is why Yugoslavia, before the fall of communism, had food for sale without lines, and stores with goods in them, even though it was cut off from both Russian and American spheres (it was independent of Russia and was communist).

Interesting stuff, for looking forward to times people might live together in peace, or for those who ask themselves if Libertarian Democrats and Big Government Republicans are possible.

I'll be back to grief and grief related issues shortly. Probably after I get some comments to give me ideas or direction.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff. I'm glad to see someone who is not afraid to think well of Socialism. Kind of rare in mormondom.

Anonymous said...

Socialism is pretty much a failed theory ... except in places where it doesn't try to own everything and tell everyone what to do.

In a more modest way, when people are allowed to own things and are responsible for them, and the market allocates production and consumption, socialism of sorts, worker managed firms in fact, out competes and out performs other systems.

As a result, it offers something, a vision of a world of small businesses vs. the American Founders vision of a world of small famers.

Anonymous said...

Socialism is no more failed than is capitalism. Socialism has had to surmount huge hurdles as whereever it has sprung up, there have been wars by the capitalists to squash the threat of a good example.
Check out Venezuela right now for an idea of how a certain new brand of socialism is working out in its infancy.

Stephen said...

Socialism is no more failed than is capitalism

Ok, I think everyone can agree that both have failed in their own ways, and succeeded too.