In this blog post, I want to discuss a possible solution on how a community can request new housing for it's citizens. This discussion include ideas of private property, socialized means of production and participatory planning. In a post-revolutionary society the means of production are owned by everyone and not by one particular production group. Therefore, each actor should influence decisions in proportion in which they are affected by them.
QUOTE (spartan @ October 02, 2007 06:42 pm) | ||
blackstone:
(And who are willing to give some of there Yes but what if C2 does not want to supply C1 with wood which is needed by C2? A solution to this problem could be for C1 to look elsewhere to another commune for wood away) but what if the next nearest commune is too far away too suit C1's demand for the wood?This could create a supply problem! Especially if C1 needs the wood desperately and gets impatient for the wood.This could lead to C1 getting violent! |
Well, in that case the wood factory of commune 2(from here on out referred to as Che Commune) has a workers council which is part of a larger federation of wood factory workers' council, which could be regional, national or international. If someone can supply it, it wouldn't take long for the commune to receive it.
Again, i think we have to think about rules of order.
In an post-revolutionary society there will be stages of planning before voting takes place.
If your part of a group, do you vote you all go to Egypt without first checking the traveling expenses and seeing whether it's in your budget?
Wouldn't be too clever. And you'll be in for a surprise..
Say the Eastside neighborhood council makes part of Che Commune, a commune which is made up of various neighborhood councils and workers councils. The neighborhood council received requests to build more houses and raised the issue in the next commune meeting and submitted the idea of new housing as a collective consumption project. The commune then submits this proposal to a facilitation board which calculates how much wood and other supplies would be needed for the project.
Workers also make proposals for what they intend to produce and the inputs needed for production. These production proposals would have also been sent to the facilation board where through a system of proposals, amendments, and rejections, a social plan articulated to cover the entire economy is hashed out.
The worker organizations that would do the work of construction and provide the materials, including the wood workers organization that provides the lumber, etc. would need to also indicate what they require in order to meet these requests. The facilitation board will relay this new information to Che commune and the Eastside neighborhood council. Where if needed they can make the proper "adjustments" to their proposals. The households of Eastside commune given back 4 different revised proposals which they rank in order of preference. After each round, a proposal is dropped until the neighborhood has settled on it's collective consumption proposal(which includes new housing requests).
This is all part of the process of negotiating of a plan on how scarce resources will be allocated. Che commune, ore more precisely, the Eastside neighborhood council can either re-adjust their collective consumption plans or put the project on hold. If through this process of adjustments, they can reach an "agreement", the community votes to settle the collective consumption proposals in order to begin prouduction on the new houses.
As always emphasized, this is just one particular way to pursue a collective consumption decision making process.
Cheers
5 comments:
I returned the favor and linked back to you.
I will return to comment at another time. I'm not commenting from home.
Thanks comrade, i appreciate the solidarity and look forward to hearing your comments!
If you replaced the roof of an ordinary house with a tefzel pillow dome (A geodesic dome made with slim metal compression members, ETFE foil "pillows" filled with argon for insulation in the winter) perhaps that would lower requirements for wood, though plastic and metal would need to be manufactured. Pillow domes are the only practical Fuller inspired structures as they are not prone to leak like early models. Also a plastic capable of withstanding longterm exposure to light, unavailable in Fullers lifetime is now in existance. Such a greenhouse roof would allow small vegetables, berries and herbs useful in cooking to be tended by individual households and would ensure good nutrition.
A roof uses a lot of wood and perhaps through better design materials could be used that required less labor to produce than wood to reduce housing costs. Energy used in heating the house is lost through the roof and could be stored to provide lots of food, assuming ethanol could be produced in large enough quantities. This would reduce transportation costs of otherwise very sensitive and vital food.
I think "decentralization" can become a fetish. Free-time is what I want and for that, I don't want to be arguing with competing councils over resources. We, the producers, should democratically control production and distribution, always with the principle of living in harmony with the Earth in mind. See my novel at my page for my vision.
thanks Will. hopefully in a socialist society we will be more conscious of scarce natural resources and the effects that are usages have on the environment. your suggestions could easily fit in and play a big part on how future households can be built.
mike b, i think we all want free time to pursue what most interests us. your free to participate or not. this is not a blueprint for the future, this is an abstract vision on how things can occur and a case against centralized planning.
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