Production systems as a political process (was: Re: [ox-en] Commons in a taxonomy of goods)

Hi Diego!

2 weeks (16 days) ago Diego Saravia wrote:
> Production  system reflects the fact that economics goods are scarce
> 
> We have not enough petroleoum, iron, etc. to increase production over
> certain levels

Sorry, Diego, but this is really a weird position in two ways. It
assumes that production systems are somehow given. Of course they are
not. They are largely human inventions and as such they can be
changed.

For instance you are referring to petroleum. Petroleum can be used in
many ways but probably still the main use of petroleum is to transform
the chemical energy contained in it to other forms of energy. In
particular *this* use can be replaced by other forms of energy quite
easily. It's all a question whether the societal system allows such a
step. In a way you are right: The *current* production system
obviously does *not* allow such a step. But this is not a law of
nature but a low of the societal system we are living in. By putting
it as a law of nature you do the job of those who want to keep
capitalism up forever.

The other way you are wrong is that you put the current production
system as your point of departure. At least in a post-capitalist
society the production system is a means to an end, however. It is the
means to satisfy societal needs. As the production system itself the
societal needs are also to some degree determined by the societal
system they arise in. At the very least you can say that the societal
needs today will be different from those of a post-capitalist societal
system. So it's wrong to simply project the present into the future.

To summarize: In a post-capitalist world the needs will be different
and the production system will be subject to a political process.

> Off course we have a very unequal distribution system, that was
> correctly described and explained by Marx.

If the distribution system would be the problem don't you think that
200 years of capitalism should have been enough to fix it? How long
are you ready to wait longer for this "fix"? No, the distribution
system isn't the problem. It's just an expression of the underlying
problem.


						Grüße

						Stefan

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