10/7/08
Economic Democracy
I think that Economic democracy seems plausible to work. That does not mean I want to change from capitalism. The government has proven time and time again that it can not manage much of anything efficiently or well if public education or welfare (2 social constructs) are any indication. Why then would we want to place the burden of investment in it? The government is currently running a deficit of $10,198,093,771,240.92. If you look around offices in the senate, almost every office has a sign outside of it calculating the debt per person for that state.
If any company ran like that, it would go bankrupt and fold. Also, while the system is a nice idea, there is no proposal for transition. It is like Social security. In all likihood, I will see nothing I am currently investing or will invest in it by the time I might need it, yet I am forced to pay into it. However even though most people realize it, it is the holy grail of politics, virtually untouchable. Why? Because no one knows how to get rid of it. There have been proposals for replacements but what about people who are currently relying on it.
How will the initial communal capital be obtained? Taxes of course, but what to do about all the private funds still in circulation. Bill Gates may be the richest man in America, but he did come by it honestly. He was raised in an upper middle class family. How are you going to strip him of all that money? Also the social tarrif is nice to equalize goods from overseas and keep the market competitive, but often those countries are poor because of corrupt and inefficient governments. Who are you going to give that kickback to in order to promote social good? Not the government I hope.
Democracy has been shown to work on a national level only if people are educated about the system which is compulsory in US schools currently. I would in fact argue that often most people are not educated enough about the issues to make an informed vote. Hell, the number of people that do vote compared to the number eligible is appalling. How is this going to transition to business? It seems like it would make for a poorly run company if less than 1/3 of its workers voted (although maybe this is good b/c the non voters might have been even less informed).
It seems to me like there are inherent flaws in the systems that could potentially outweigh the benefits. I would need to see a structured transition plan before I would even consider changing our whole economic system.
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I agree with Sasha said that Economic Democracy seems reasonable to work but that does mean that the US economy must change from capitalism. I really agree that there need some arrangement to do structured transition plan before changing the whole economic system. I say that because as we are know that economic institutions interact with so much other institutions like social and political. The focus now is how to change in economic structure that can help achieve such social goals as democracy, environmental sustainability, ecological balance, and social Justine.
I would like to add some more facts that show that now US involve in economy crisis instead of what Shaaa said the government is currently running a large amount of deficit. Today, about 31 states in US include the "Golden State" like California, New York and Florida cannot pay the wage for public worker and find for help from the central government. The total cost for the economy problem maybe about US $53.4 billion. Business Week quote from Budget and Financial Department for the last month state that California running a budget deficit about US $15billion.
I partially do not understand why are really happen now to the economy institution in US and world that cause the economic crisis. As we discussed in class, the private individual owner and control the economy in capitalism system. So, government does not have a full power to control and gain some benefit from the profit-making by the company. Government cannot increase their income budget if they are not really control the economy like increase the taxes for the companies. According to Rosen & Schweickart, they said that the government makes no attempt to influence or alter the free market outcomes. I really want to see the government increase the interference in economic institution so that economy field is benefit to all people rather than only the rich people gain benefit from this field.
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