Parecon: Life After Capitalism
by Michael Albert
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael AlbertEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05
ISBN: 184467505X
Number of pages: 311
Publisher: Verso
Book Reviews of Parecon: Life After Capitalism
Book Review: A Bureaucratic Economy
Summary: 2 Stars
Parecon attempts to defend "participatory" economics. However, only a bureaucrat could love "parecon". I did not see any mention of America's Shakers who tried a religious form of participatory economics and failed. Nor did I see anything on the many socialistic communes that formed in America in the 1970's (Most failed). Nor did I see anything to explain why some of Israel's kibbutzim seem to lack the enthusiasm they had 40 and 50 years ago.
Parecon is at least one (or more) step(s) toward socialism than is the concept of Co-ops. The author suggests that no one should have any "ownwership" of any means of production. To me, this means that there is no individual ownership of anything including of my self. Everything should belong to all members of the parecon society. Unfortunately, this totally disregards very fundamental human psychology. If I have access to anything that can be used as a means of production for stuff that is "scarce", I am going to try to produce the scarcity so I can get a higher reward for my efforts than society is willing to give me for my regular, assigned, job.
There are a number of these blind spots to the realities of human psychology in the author's presentation. For example, the author does not discuss "competition".
On the other hand, the presentation is worthwhile for students of economics who wish to intellectually explore various possibilities for economics.
My overall impression is that parecon has too much potential for some alpha-dog participants to take advantage of more passive participants and much too much bureaucracy necessary to achieve parecon in an entire nation. I think there is a serious lack of individual freedom or liberty in the author's notion of a parecon. I think it would be more worthwhile and more realistic to study how tribal economies work in the various American Indian nations.
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