“Really really :-) Political economy is a description of how the world works. Being a description, it is a map.”
I’ve always thought that ultimately, description is the best that anyone can ever really do. We’ll be getting into epistemology if we go down this route any further; your call on whether or not you want to do that.
“Let’s do a little gedanken experiment. I hereby give you a piece of paper that represents a share, an ownership claim on your fraction of the global means of production. It is exclusive to you and you control it. Oh, but say you, it’s fake, it doesn’t represent anything! OK then. In the system which you describe, what can you do with you “true” ownership claim that you cannot do with the admittedly fake claim which I have just given to you?”
...I’m assuming that the parallel with paper currency is intentional. This is exactly the way in which any system of private property works: the validity of the claim is based on a common social contract. However, as these shares are claims to a publically-owned property, it is a type of personal property, dependent upon some particular formulation of a social contract (stipulating e.g., 1. all material goods are publically-owned, and 2. all people who are capable of conceiving of a vision of the Public Good deserve a share in this publically-owned stock of goods)....I can’t tell if I’m being led somewhere or you missed that completely, though I’m naturally leaning toward the former.
“Can you specify the end you’re seeking?”
In excruciatingly minute detail; suffice to say the most important tenets are egalitarianism, equality, and communitarianism.
ultimately, description is the best that anyone can ever really do.
May I suggest a review of the concepts of the map and the territory?
I can’t tell if I’m being led somewhere or you missed that completely
I think I missed it completely. I just don’t understand what rights does a “claim of ownership” give you. Let me ask the question again: what can you do with it? Let’s take two people, A and B. A has the “claim of ownership”, B does not. They both wake up, walk out onto the street. What can A do that B cannot? Which rights does A have that B does not?
the most important tenets are egalitarianism, equality, and communitarianism.
What happens to people who do not like these tenets?
Would a kibbutz or a hippy commune be an example of a society you want?
“May I suggest a review of the concepts of the map and the territory?”
None is needed; I’m pretty sure that I understand the use of the terms map and territory here. Maps are representations of reality, territories the correspondent reality. I don’t argue against this term pairing, in fact I quite like it, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t violated them in principle. I was just heading in the direction of arguing that all anyone can ever have is a map, so to speak—I’m fundamentally an epistemological idealist. But this is a discussion we could go on about to the end of time.
“I think I missed it completely. I just don’t understand what rights does a “claim of ownership” give you. Let me ask the question again: what can you do with it? Let’s take two people, A and B. A has the “claim of ownership”, B does not. They both wake up, walk out onto the street. What can A do that B cannot? Which rights does A have that B does not?”
I think you might be under a misconception about the idea of market socialism (or my particular version of it, anyway): the only things which don’t have claims of ownership are non-people, in the broad sense. To make the scenario fit, you’d have to ask, “what can A do with A’s claim to ownership that B cannot do with A’s claim to ownership?” B cannot take A’s claim to ownership (be it his labor or the value associated with a single person’s share) and use it to work towards or in any way advance B’s vision of the Public Good if A does not agree with B’s vision of the Public Good. This is the only right/obligation that people in this theoretical can worry about: freedom to exercise agency and vision, and an obligation on the part of each person to respect the exercise of agency and vision of others.
“What happens to people who do not like these tenets?”
They’re free to participate or not participate in my, or any other entity’s, vision of the Public Good, including their own. If a particular vision is in low enough demand, then it likely won’t be achievable due to lack of resources gathered to accomplish it, and any organization around that Public Good will naturally dissolved as people become dissatisfied with it. This gives people an incentive to formulate a vision of the Public Good which is as universally-appealing and inclusive as possible.
In a sense, it’s much like the universalizability issue of the Kantian imperative. I can make any particular vision of the Public Good as specific as I like it, but as I add more and more detail to it, the more opportunities I create to turn people off from it. If my vision of the Public Good revolves around my every specific desire, it’s not likely to attract other people because I will have a different set of specific desires from other people. By contrast, if I can formulate a vision of the Public Good which is composed solely of specific desires that appeal to a lot of people, more people will join me in the pursuit of my vision of the Public Good.
This should all sound quite similar to what we have today, because it is. The difference is that, with the abolition of private property and a democratic ownership of the MoP, there’s a lot more room for many different visions of the Public Good to be realized as no one has anymore ability to impose their Public Good vision on people than anyone else does. I always thought this was a pretty meritocratic system.
“Really really :-) Political economy is a description of how the world works. Being a description, it is a map.”
I’ve always thought that ultimately, description is the best that anyone can ever really do. We’ll be getting into epistemology if we go down this route any further; your call on whether or not you want to do that.
“Let’s do a little gedanken experiment. I hereby give you a piece of paper that represents a share, an ownership claim on your fraction of the global means of production. It is exclusive to you and you control it. Oh, but say you, it’s fake, it doesn’t represent anything! OK then. In the system which you describe, what can you do with you “true” ownership claim that you cannot do with the admittedly fake claim which I have just given to you?”
...I’m assuming that the parallel with paper currency is intentional. This is exactly the way in which any system of private property works: the validity of the claim is based on a common social contract. However, as these shares are claims to a publically-owned property, it is a type of personal property, dependent upon some particular formulation of a social contract (stipulating e.g., 1. all material goods are publically-owned, and 2. all people who are capable of conceiving of a vision of the Public Good deserve a share in this publically-owned stock of goods)....I can’t tell if I’m being led somewhere or you missed that completely, though I’m naturally leaning toward the former.
“Can you specify the end you’re seeking?”
In excruciatingly minute detail; suffice to say the most important tenets are egalitarianism, equality, and communitarianism.
May I suggest a review of the concepts of the map and the territory?
I think I missed it completely. I just don’t understand what rights does a “claim of ownership” give you. Let me ask the question again: what can you do with it? Let’s take two people, A and B. A has the “claim of ownership”, B does not. They both wake up, walk out onto the street. What can A do that B cannot? Which rights does A have that B does not?
What happens to people who do not like these tenets?
Would a kibbutz or a hippy commune be an example of a society you want?
“May I suggest a review of the concepts of the map and the territory?”
None is needed; I’m pretty sure that I understand the use of the terms map and territory here. Maps are representations of reality, territories the correspondent reality. I don’t argue against this term pairing, in fact I quite like it, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t violated them in principle. I was just heading in the direction of arguing that all anyone can ever have is a map, so to speak—I’m fundamentally an epistemological idealist. But this is a discussion we could go on about to the end of time.
“I think I missed it completely. I just don’t understand what rights does a “claim of ownership” give you. Let me ask the question again: what can you do with it? Let’s take two people, A and B. A has the “claim of ownership”, B does not. They both wake up, walk out onto the street. What can A do that B cannot? Which rights does A have that B does not?”
I think you might be under a misconception about the idea of market socialism (or my particular version of it, anyway): the only things which don’t have claims of ownership are non-people, in the broad sense. To make the scenario fit, you’d have to ask, “what can A do with A’s claim to ownership that B cannot do with A’s claim to ownership?” B cannot take A’s claim to ownership (be it his labor or the value associated with a single person’s share) and use it to work towards or in any way advance B’s vision of the Public Good if A does not agree with B’s vision of the Public Good. This is the only right/obligation that people in this theoretical can worry about: freedom to exercise agency and vision, and an obligation on the part of each person to respect the exercise of agency and vision of others.
“What happens to people who do not like these tenets?”
They’re free to participate or not participate in my, or any other entity’s, vision of the Public Good, including their own. If a particular vision is in low enough demand, then it likely won’t be achievable due to lack of resources gathered to accomplish it, and any organization around that Public Good will naturally dissolved as people become dissatisfied with it. This gives people an incentive to formulate a vision of the Public Good which is as universally-appealing and inclusive as possible.
In a sense, it’s much like the universalizability issue of the Kantian imperative. I can make any particular vision of the Public Good as specific as I like it, but as I add more and more detail to it, the more opportunities I create to turn people off from it. If my vision of the Public Good revolves around my every specific desire, it’s not likely to attract other people because I will have a different set of specific desires from other people. By contrast, if I can formulate a vision of the Public Good which is composed solely of specific desires that appeal to a lot of people, more people will join me in the pursuit of my vision of the Public Good.
This should all sound quite similar to what we have today, because it is. The difference is that, with the abolition of private property and a democratic ownership of the MoP, there’s a lot more room for many different visions of the Public Good to be realized as no one has anymore ability to impose their Public Good vision on people than anyone else does. I always thought this was a pretty meritocratic system.