The Socialist Dream Crumbles in Venezuela

[Homer]

[JDHURF]

Spider does not understand the federal council economy and the fact that with fully participatory direct democratic control over the collective organs of society, the workers' councils, local collectives and so on, a single individual will simply not have the means to appropriate what would be public property, owned and managed by the collective, and begin to issue his or her own currency to people who for reasons not specified would rather enter into wage slavery where they do not have participatory, democratic control over their working lives and instead follow dictates like the economic serfs of today.

People do not necessarily have to "play nice." It's about the nature of the social structure and people's power within it. The nature of the structure of a federal council of economy simply precludes any single individual from appropriating the social means that would be necessary to coerce others into a class antagonistic wage system. Anyone who knows anything about the nature and functioning of the system knows how preposterous the suggestion is.

Absolutely none of that scenario makes the least bit of sense, but Spider believes it to be the most profound rebuke to socialism ever devised since the argument that "people suck."

[exploited]

To be fair, we really don't know the precise functioning of the "federal council of economy," as it has never been put in place over a truly modern and diverse economy. I have no doubt there is tons of literature on the subject, but we won't know what works until we start implementing it and playing around with it. From the little I know about it, I'm not even sure it is desirable - the idea of needing approval from a local board to acquire a TV or whatever doesn't appeal to me.

[The Dharma Bum]

It functioned in Spain quite well.

http://www.amazon.com/Homage-Catalonia- ... 0156421178

[exploited]

[The Dharma Bum]

[Spider]

[Spider]

[The Dharma Bum]

Clearly you aren't. There doesn't need to be a force to stop someone from doing something they simply don't have the means to do in the first place.

[Spider]