Comment · Sun, July 22, 2012
$21tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite
What they were answering
[deleted] · 6 points
There are plenty of alternatives to capitalism that don't require state planning or even a state at all! Might I suggest looking at Mutualism) the earliest form of modern Anarchism created by Proudhon. Or perhaps, Parecon (participatory economics), a form of a pseudo-market economy (also stateless) that is similar to syndicalism. And of course, there is always the mutual-aid based Anarchist Communism made famous by biologist, historian, and economist Peter Kropotkin
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Those are economic theories that try to eliminate the perceived human flaw of greed. However, they do this by limiting freedom to a point where it impacts efficiency. The perfect market would be a truly free market, with an educated and confident workforce. This would give everyone the freedom to do what they want for their price they think is fair. The drawback to our current system is people. The less educated our workforce, the less confident and self sufficient it's workers, the more chance of being taken advantage of. So I don't see the flaws in the current system as the problem, but a symptom of the real problem, lack of education! I cannot agree with any economic theory that tries to fix a symptom by creating another problem, inefficiency.
To quote the article you posted:
Parecon might reduce efficiency in the workplace. For one, expert and exceptional workers (e.g. exceptional surgeons and scientists) would not be performing their tasks full time. Participatory economics would expect them to share in "disempowering work" and would not offer opportunities to seek additional compensation for their high ability or finding solutions to problems.
Theodore Burczak argues that it is impossible for workers to give the unbiased assessments of the "largely unobservable" characteristics of effort proposed as the basis for salary levels, and the absence of market exchange mechanisms likewise makes calculating social costs of production and consumption impossible.