Raise the Hammer

I just want to make it clear. I'm not a "pareconist". I think there are strengths and weaknesses of that model.

A Smith raises a legitimate point. Radicals really need to focus on communication that's accessible. Nevertheless, sometimes you have to read the whole book to get what the terms mean. There's nothing wrong with that.

Balanced job complexes basically means that you're not stuck doing the same thing all the time at work. Worker and consumer councils should be self explanatory. "[D]ecision making input is apportioned in proportion to degree affected by virtue of the operations of workers and consumers councils" means you get a say according to how much you're affected. Parecon also has some really interesting things to say about remuneration for work.

I do think quality of decisions would be better in a self-managed workplace. That doesn't mean it would necessarily outcompete a capitalist corporation. In most cases, the capitalist would win because he drives his workers harder for less money. Way to be. With self-management, the goal wouldn't be winning, but meeting everybody's needs and wants on both the supply and demand side. Different ends: a better world vs. bigger, faster, more.

Can you not see how having to deal with a frickin gladiatorial battle everytime you go to work, or the market, or even try to travel from a to b - can you not see how that takes away from quality of life? Modern life doesn't have to be that way. We have enough - too much - production. It's time to spread it around and clear up the irrational contradictions.

The economics of scarcity no longer make sense. (In fact it's threatening the very survival of life on earth.) Like electronic products. They're being disseminated communistically because it makes sense to. This concrete phenomenon should make people clue in to the ideological - as opposed to scientific - nature of capitalist economics.

By the way, there is at least one large, competitive worker run corporation. That's the Mondragon Co-op in the Basque region of Spain.