The book Socialism After Hayek by Theodore Burczak has been one of the best books on markets, social justice/socialism, and Hayek that I have read (and I have read my fair share of books and articles on the subjects). It encompasses a wide variety of material in a concise manner that really sums up the key points for understanding the importance of F.A. Hayeks contributions to psychology, economics, and philosophy. It creates a post-hayekian socialism where markets exist within a society where 1. Workers have democratic control over their workplaces and 2. There are government services to offset the limitations of the market. That is essentially exactly what I have theorized as the best way to have a modern society constructed. I dont agree with having all of society based around 1. Gift economy economics (communal sharing of everything), which is not realistic for a strong, modern economy and 2. Central Planning (command economy, such as the USSR), of which has been proven to fail and cannot adjust for the rapidly changing conditions of human transactions. You can, however, have a mixture of aspects of markets, command, and gift economies. For instance, you can have the mixed economy (markets/some state intervention) of the USA along with the democratic control over workplaces by the workers. That provides for a booming economy and the currency system that allows for programs to be made that can take care of everyone throughout society. At the same time, you can have communities structured in the image of Catholic Distributism, in which economies are kept as local and personal as possible (communal), in the sense of local cooperatives and family-run businesses making up the economy and having a strong community focus (community events and jobs programs...etc). Markets are important in giving as much freedom to individuals as possible, while also allocating goods and determining prices of goods in the most efficient manner (unlike an entirely gift economy), and at the same time, avoiding the nearly infinite amount of calculations and knowledge that a centrally planned command economy requires in order to work efficiently. [Summary] This book gives strong evidence for the need of any modern economy to have markets incorporated into their society to some extent, in order to overcome the problems of previous attempts at socialist societies (of which many cant even be called socialist in the first place), such as command (USSR) or gift/anarchist economies. It creates the vision of a society where injustice is fought completely and where we have an overall booming and personally-focused/community-based economy, of which would maximize human flourishing. In essence, socialism doesnt have to be that scary thing where vanguardism/authoritarianism is trying to take over and control everything, nor where primitive/unstable structures of society (such as gift/anarchic economies) lead to oppressive or weak societies. Instead, it can be a healthy mixture of the best aspects of markets, state intervention, and community.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 08:21:25 +0000
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