Re: Jericho style rationing

On 7 Apr 2007 21:19:58 -0700, "CanopyCo" <Junk74020@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

("Socialism In Action" snipped)

Think of a survival community as a large family.

No thanks! I prefer an economy functioning with VOLUNTARY
trade, using media of exchange chosen by the participants in
a market environment. What we would have (in a post SHTF
situation) is a choice between socialism, controlled by
force by the leaders, and some sort of anarcho-capitalism.
I know which one has the better chance of creating goods and
services, and putting them to good use, and it isn't
socialism. Of course, I understand that is what the sheeple
would want, so the rest of us (the liberty-minded) would
have to be prepared to secede from and resist their efforts
at "fairness." This is where a population of like-minded
individuals, with plenty of firepower, would be critical -
both to create the means of living AND to resist the
depredations of the "let's all share and share alike"
socialists who will try to take it by force.

What you are describing is exactly the situation the members
of the Plymouth colony found themselves in. They started
out with a "share everything equally" system, and they
damned near starved to death, because there was no incentive
to be productive. Those who goofed off were as well fed as
those who worked hard - not very well. After a while, they
realized their error and divided the land up into individual
plots, with each family allowed to profit from its own
productivity. Then they thrived. Under your "share
everything" system, controlled by force by leaders, you'd
soon have starvation too. It is contrary to human nature,
and it won't work. The command economy, whether in a small
town in Kansas, or in the USSR, is bound to fail. The
reason, in short, is that the leaders never can know what is
needed, how much of it is needed, how it should be produced,
how it should be distributed, etc. Only a free market of
free producers and consumers can be successful at
determining those questions.

The problem is often called "the arithmetic problem,"
referring to the impossibility of doing the calculations
required to figure HOW to command an economy. In Jericho,
neither the mayor nor any group of leaders can possibly know
who should be working at the hospital, who should be doing
guard duty, who should be growing food, who should be
running the power station, how long and hard any given
person should be working at his assigned tasks, how much
food each family should get, how much electricity each
family should get, how much medical care each family should
get, nor any other such question. Only the market, with
people voluntarily trading among themselves for goods and
services, can ever achieve the highest possible level of
success at creating and distributing goods and services.
Every attempt to interfere with the market must result in a
decrease in that success.

--
Robert Sturgeon
Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
http://www.vistech.net/users/rsturge/
.