Recent reading
Oct. 30th, 2019 10:03 pmParecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert (2002)
A detailed vision of participatory economics, which is neither a market economy nor central planning. The central features are self-organization, reward according to effort (or according to need if you can't work), balancing workloads so that everyone does both rewarding and boring/strenous work, and federated decision-making so that decisions are made by those affected by the decision. Allocation is done by workplaces submitting production plans and individuals and communal councils at various levels submitting private and public consumption plans, and then these are compared and the process is iterated until a final plan for the year is voted through. You pay for your individual consumption and your part of the communal consumption with prices that depend not only on material and labor inputs but also on negative and positive side effects of the goods in question.
Some people on Goodreads complained that the book was boring, and I see what they meant--it is clearly structured and clearly written, but the prose is a bit plodding and there's some redundancy. Still, it's definitely worth reading. Or putting in the hands of people who claim that there is no possible alternative to today's economic system.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (audiobook read by Elizabeth Klett)
Probably the third or fourth time I've read it? I've been inspired by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stultiloquentia's interesting Austen posts, which make me understand how much I'm missing because I don't know enough of the social context. And yet, the book is so enjoyable without knowing much of that, as well. A comfort read.
A detailed vision of participatory economics, which is neither a market economy nor central planning. The central features are self-organization, reward according to effort (or according to need if you can't work), balancing workloads so that everyone does both rewarding and boring/strenous work, and federated decision-making so that decisions are made by those affected by the decision. Allocation is done by workplaces submitting production plans and individuals and communal councils at various levels submitting private and public consumption plans, and then these are compared and the process is iterated until a final plan for the year is voted through. You pay for your individual consumption and your part of the communal consumption with prices that depend not only on material and labor inputs but also on negative and positive side effects of the goods in question.
Some people on Goodreads complained that the book was boring, and I see what they meant--it is clearly structured and clearly written, but the prose is a bit plodding and there's some redundancy. Still, it's definitely worth reading. Or putting in the hands of people who claim that there is no possible alternative to today's economic system.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (audiobook read by Elizabeth Klett)
Probably the third or fourth time I've read it? I've been inspired by
stultiloquentia's interesting Austen posts, which make me understand how much I'm missing because I don't know enough of the social context. And yet, the book is so enjoyable without knowing much of that, as well. A comfort read.
